Too many people, both young and old, look to retirement as their dream, an escape from a life they’re not enjoying. Do you want to take the retirement or lifestyle design route?
What does retirement mean to you? Is it swinging on the porch, watching the world go by? Spending more time with family and friends?
Is it spending your days away, relaxing, shopping, dining, wining, and travelling.
Do you see it as the time at last where you can escape from the drudgery of a job you haven’t enjoyed, but which you have performed for 30 to 40 years?
In my opinion, why wait for retirement to do something that you love. In my mind the greatest thing we can do for ourselves is do the work that we’ve always wanted to do to pursue our passions.
Why would anyone wait till retirement age before they get where they want to be. If you redefine retirement from “not working” to “doing exactly what you’d like to do with your time,” then you don’t need to wait until you’re 65 with a pension and a gold watch to retire.
I was with a group of people this weekend, and it was obvious that they hated Monday mornings. Why? Well simple really, they would be returning to jobs that they disliked. What a dreadful way to live. Doing something that pays your bills but which you take no satisfaction from.
Yes it is Monday today. Here am I at 8am sitting at my laptop tapping away at the keyboard. I’m going to get all my blog posts done this morning, before chatting with my team, and a coaching client on skype. I need then to do some online marketing, reply to a few emails, and work a little bit on my ‘Do what You Love’ course. Of course I’ll be throwing in a Starbucks break at some stage, and doing a workout down the gym this afternoon. What a great life, and even more awesome job I do. Can’t really call it work, can I.
Why not live the life you want to, right now? You can live the good life while still in your “working years.”
Timothy Ferriss’ in his book The 4-Hour work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich defines lifestyle design in the following way:
[blockquote photo=”http://www.larry-lewis.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/tim-ferriss.jpg” align=”left” author=”Tim Ferriss”]The New Rich are those who abandon the deferred-life plan and create luxury lifestyles in the present using the currency of the New Rich: time and mobility. This is an art and a science we will refer to as Lifestyle Design . Tim Ferriss. [/blockquote]
To me there is nothing worse than living a life where you are forced to live a 9-to-5 existence doing a job you have no passion for, getting a little respite at the weekend, longing for the occasional two weeks every year where you get to vacation. Working and waiting till you get to an age where you can retire.
Everyone should be able to read this and examine their life and goals and ask themselves am I somebody forced to live a live I don’t enjoy waiting desperately for retirement age, or am I somebody following my passsions enjoying everything I do.
Each of you is capable of designing your life the way you want it.
Let me introduce you to something that offers you a path to a lot of hard work, but freedom to. It’s being an entrepreneur. you have the freedom to do what you want, when you want, with who you want and to work on whatever you like, whenever you like – but it’s a lot of hard work! I repeat, its not easy, you will take knocks and setbacks. Frustrations will appear on your path, but you can make it through. The journey is still enjoyable because you’re doing a jb you truly enjoy.
Yet I love being an entrepreneur and living an awesome entrepreneurial lifestyle. I’m not the finished product. That’s the great thing about this lifestyle. You decide how much you want to put in, and how much you get out. So I’m just not satisfied yet. Maybe it’s I’m greedy, or maybe I just enjoy myself to much to stop. It has everything to do with being free, spending time with my family and ultimately getting to do what I love doing for a living, day in, day out.
You control your life and what happens in it, and, once you realize that fully, you give yourself room to grow, experiment, and begin designing the life of your dreams. You get to decide what you want to do, when you want to do it, where you want to do it, and with whom you want to do it. You get the picture.
This way you get to spend each day following your passions, doing what excites you and enjoying life
I am advising a young man now. My mission is to help him design his lifestyle the entrepreneurial way. Can I take him from a discontented factory worker to a passion entrepreneur. We will monitor his progress through this blog.
Thank you for joining me today.
This is Larry Lewis
