How can you be so sure that's what you want?

In the previous post I explained that I don’t think the common path of trading my time for money fits how I see myself in a future. But how do I see myself in the future?

Of course on many occasions, like children, you see something that you fall in love with and say “I want to do that”, but usually before long it’s water under the bridge. So, how to be sure that a goal towards which we direct our lives, sometimes with no way back, is something we really want to do and not something we fell in love with in a passing way.

The only sure way to know for sure is to try it. Head in that direction and if after a certain time you don’t feel as fulfilled as you thought you would be, then obviously it is not that activity you are doing or the lifestyle you are leading that makes you feel fulfilled as a person. Of course, in this case it would mean that you either move forward with that project or simply change course again.

Sometimes changing course again is not easy, as you may have submitted yourself to a level of commitment to other people or institutions that is too great to abandon the ship. But also, on the other hand, moving forward with something you find unpleasant and insignificant to your development as a human being can be even more complicated and sometimes miserable.

There are goals and directions towards which we direct our lives that are somewhat abstract and despite being obvious we do not see them clearly at first, such as financial independence. Since we have programmed into our brains from the time we are children that we have to work until the age of 65 to only then enjoy the approximately 10 years we have left in El reino de este mundo, without working, then it may be difficult for us to imagine that other paths are possible. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that the models on which modern (at least Western) societies are built should inevitably lead us to a point where there are no funds to support workers’ pensions when they reach retirement age, and this is likely to happen in my generation.

So, while there may be someone, if anyone reading this, who think it’s crazy to change one’s attitude towards life and pursue financial independence, I think it’s what every person should do. The reason why is very simple: You lose nothing by pursuing financial freedom, and you have a lot to gain. Imagine that when you are 65 years old they say that the retirement age is no longer 66 because the funds are not enough, but now it is 80. Crying is the least I would want to do at that moment.

One of the most fundamental, but at the same time most complex questions, and one that most people don’t seriously ask themselves and take the time to think about, is “What do I want to be? If someone is clear about it, then it is very simple, just work in that direction and you will get there for sure. A very small part find the answer to this question by chance, and find themselves one day doing some activity that begins to be highly demanded by the people around them, thus opening their own business. But for many others, this is still an unanswered question, even though they take time to reflect on it. And the problem lies in the attitude and point of view with which you approach the matter, because really, it may be that what you want to be is nothing. If you want to get up every day without schedules, without strict agendas, without bosses, without absurd and insignificant commitments, etc., then what you want to be is nothing.

A simple way to identify what you want to be or do, of course including not being or doing anything, is, at least from my point of view, to reflect on the following situation. If you wake up tomorrow and you are told that money will never again be a problem or something to work for in your life, that it has disappeared and that you have all yours and your family’s biological needs covered, then what you would do under those circumstances would be what you really want to do. What you do today you probably do to survive, not because you necessarily want to. Think about what you would do on that very day, in that week, in those months that follow. Maybe at first it would be to rest, not to get out of bed or off the couch, but at some point you would obviously feel the need to do something: plant flowers in the garden, open a restaurant, write a novel, or just keep going to your current job. Of course, it doesn’t have to be just one thing you want to do, but you can want to do everything, in this case you would start with what you are most attracted to and continue with the list, which would surely change along the way, until the strength leaves you.

Personally I think that what I want to do is nothing, and at the same time everything.