I've thought about making this post for a few months now... I've finally got around to it.
After listening to some Jimmy Buffett
, I have realized that my families and societies push for me to make more money above all else, isn't really where my priorities should be. I have worked more hours of overtime, than hours I have spent with friends or at the beach. Yes, I have had a job for the past 7 years, and have been lucky that it has been very good with few negatives compared to any other job I could expect to get now. I have been responsible with money and could probably 'retire (home paid off and self sufficient)' in 4 years if I got my yearly expenses down far enough and could find a different job that isn't about the money and hours or start my own business. An extra $10,000 here or $20,000 there isn't going to drastically change my lifestyle anymore. Unless I could travel in time and give it to myself in high school when I could have used it.
I've had this current plan to get to this place in my life since I was 15 or so, and in the past 15 years, I have been successful in the money, house, job priorities that I have set out to achive. Yet, relationships, friendships, and fun have been minimal. I never had a plan for them and thought that they just happened. Even personal happiness hasn't been a high priority. And spending time with family just happens a few times a year now as well. I keep asking myself, "what is the meaning of life?" and what should I do to improve it?
I have found some things that make me unhappy, so I want to try and avoid alarm clocks, cold temperatures, and angry mean people in my future plans. One of my ideas is to become a snowbird (old people who migrate south for the winter), yet I'm about 40 years younger than the average one. I have been living in a snowbird city since early January and have loved missing the snowstorms in Ohio. It is a nice lifestyle, yet there isn't a large population of 20 and 30-somethings to hang out with. I'm not sure why more companies don't have winter offices down in the deep south. Baseball is the only group that I know of.
But, I don't know what I should do in the next 5 -10 years. Do I play it safe and do what I have been doing, yet I doubt much with change with my social life? Do I take some time off and do some big trips like bicycling across Europe for a few months (although it would be better to find someone to go with first), going to dance clubs and beaches? Do I build a sailboat/catamaran and sail north in the summer and south in the winter? I would be able to hit lots of beaches then... but would still have the problem of not staying in one spot and it wouldn't be a long-term solution, it would be a fun two or three year experience though. The one option that is acceptable and respected by society would being a disaster relief worker. I think it would be a fun challenging job, and I like helping other people and being productive. Or I can work for myself and try and develop a product that other people would want to buy, and would improve their lives, and if I were successful, I would be able to migrate south for the winter and north in the summer, go on vacations and work hard an d play hard, without risk of financial collapse.. Although I'm not sure if it would improve the situation with hanging out with friends and lack of relationships...
Have any of you ever drastically changed your life to make it more enjoyable? What do you think my goals in life should be in the next 70 years? Are there simple things that I could do to improve things (watch less TV and spend more time with other people would probably be #1, but I'm not sure what that would be doing)?