I’m choosing balance, autonomy, and well being today over long-term plans that might never work out.
My most recent stances on semi-retirement and self employment, summed up in a personal manifest:
- I denounce putting a happy and balanced life on hold to work a full-time “job” plus a side hustle so I can (maybe, one day) fully “retire” from paid work.
- I denounce the 9–5 so I can try a different way of life that involves working on my own terms and schedule.
- Work is a means to an end. No matter how engaged I am in my work, no matter how much I enjoy it; working for money is not leisure or relaxation. I enjoy work, but I must accept it for what it is, and what it is not.
- Spending less is key, not only to my semi-retirement lifestyle goals but to reducing my personal carbon footprint and becoming a more creative and resourceful human.
- Corporate life has stripped away my health and well being for too many years. It is time for me to try a change.
- Today is King.
- Working how and when I want to work is king.
- Youth is fleeting, and days are finite.
- Working in a variety of settings, not just at a desk, is king for me.
