A Pretty Pathetic Life
A blog reader whom I've never met recently reached out with a personal update. After reading this blog for the last 18 months, as well as simmering in modest misery (or general indifference) for the previous 15 years at his job, he finally decided life is too short to wake up every day to go to a job that sucks. His previous goal was to retire as quickly as possible so he can quit this soul-sucking rat race. He found a new job, quit his old one, and now lives a different reality. He no longer obsesses about retirement. Instead, he wonders how long he'll get to do this newfound awesome work.
His family took a 15% pay cut for this shift to happen, which scared him to death. However, after living in his new financial reality for the past several months, he realizes that while his standard of living is slightly lower, his family's quality of life has significantly improved!
It reminds me of a message I received a few years ago after publishing my favorite Tweet of all time, which I occasionally re-publish for sport: "Early retirement isn't a dream. It's the consolation prize for not having a dream."
As you can imagine, that sort of idea can set this world ablaze. I received a storm of backlash from that Tweet, ranging from text messages, to DMs, to in-person disagreements. However, my favorite response to date is this: "You must have a pretty pathetic life to prefer working."
He got me! He nailed it. I, indeed, live a pretty pathetic life. So much so that all I want to do is slave away in misery, biding my time until I'm buried. I'm joking, of course, but I can't stop thinking about this cultural narrative about work. Work = bad. Work = necessary evil. Work = misery.
As I often mention, we don't have to choose between meaning at home and meaning at work. Not only can we have both, but we should have both. We wake up with meaning, then drive to meaning, then have meaning all day, then drive home toward meaning, then meaning until we go to bed, then repeat. It doesn't have to be a constant back-and-forth between meaning and misery. We don't have to torture ourselves for decades on end.
So, to my new blog friend who must be living a pretty pathetic life to no longer crave an early retirement, cheers! I hope these next 20+ years are far more rewarding than anything early retirement could have provided you. This is where your career starts to get good!
____
Did someone forward you this post? We're glad you're here! If you'd like to subscribe to The Daily Meaning to receive these posts directly in your inbox (for free!), just CLICK THIS LINK. It only takes 10 seconds.