Am I really suited for ERE?

[maxysu]

I recently broke my collar bone when driving to work by bicycle and I now have a couple of weeks off work.

I have a million side projects that I wanted to be doing when I finally would have some free time.

Now I have the time, but all I end up doing is reading random things on the internet, organising insurance things that are related to the accident, waking up at 10 a.m. in the morning and going to bed at 11 p.m., not doing much really.

Thoughts arise that I might not be able to find meaningful things to do once I am FI and that scares me a little bit. Does anyhow have similar experiences?

[vexed87]

If you were driving a bike, you were doing it wrong (just kidding!). Sorry to hear you were hurt. Crashing your bike is a rite of passage, now you have hopefully learnt a lesson in riding more safely, your less likely to have another accident

Being plagued with inaction is common for those who feel they need to research everything as much as possible before undertaking anything. Identify one thing you want to do this weekend and JUST DO IT! Its seems common for INTJ types to behave in this way.

You will need to find a lot of things to do to replace a full time job, butI am sure you will find 100 things you'd rather do than work!

[Tyler9000]

There's a common misperception while working that one's life must always be filled with productivity in order to be meaningful. Everyone is different, but I personally think that's more brainwashing than reality. ERE allows you to focus on a handful of meaningful things in smaller proportions intermixed with plenty of normal life. And it's normal to shut down and decompress for a while as you adjust.

[jacob]

I have a million side projects that I wanted to be doing when I finally would have some free time.

Such as?

[mfi]

Thank you for sharing your process. I had a similar experience some years ago. I also broke my collar bone by falling from my bicycle on my way to the office. I did not take any painkillers during the recovery and I did not need surgery. The general discomfort after the accident did not make the period conducive to making life changing decisions. I was back on my bike within 60 days and life was back to normal.

I retired from corporate life at 37 about 8 years ago and my definition of "meaningful things" is still evolving. Nothing yet has replaced the structure, illusion of purpose, or psychological pull of my former corporate finance job, but I can't say that I miss it. Trying to enter the state of flow during daily mundane activities seems to help.

Thevoluntarylife.com recently (June 9) had a podcast about creating purpose, structure, community outside of a job that might give you some relevant questions to think about. Good luck!

[steveo73]

There's a common misperception while working that one's life must always be filled with productivity in order to be meaningful. Everyone is different, but I personally think that's more brainwashing than reality. ERE allows you to focus on a handful of meaningful things in smaller proportions intermixed with plenty of normal life. And it's normal to shut down and decompress for a while as you adjust.

I think doing nothing is cool.

[saving-10-years]

I would agree with @Tyler9000 and maybe take it further. I have been retired for the past year plus. I've done a lot more work on side activities (e.g. organising a complex national summer school on a voluntary basis with a group of volunteers which feels a lot like paid work ) and I have spent far more time with my family and spent that time differently than I would have before. But the main thing I could look back on the year as allowing is time to think about myself. Selfish isn't it? So much time before this point has been reacting to what others need from me or I feel I need to do for others. I have changed my mind about what it is that I want to do many times in this year.

I have time (I am time-rich post retirement) so that when I consider what I want to do with a day the usual constraints (from when I was time-poor) don't apply. It feels like floating (which could sound horridly unproductive) but I am getting to know myself better and understand what I really want to do. It also brings me special pleasure to take my time doing things. To get research, consider alternatives and get things right. I can be really happy that I have made the best decision which best fits rather than living with something that feels an uneasy compromise (INTJ stuff here). I am wallowing in the time and learning not to worry. Progress is being made in directions I never expected. Availability of time opens up new prespectives (both inward and outward facing). It works.

[Solvent]

I have sympathy for you, OP. I wonder the same thing about myself.

I'm not FI yet. I have a lot of new skills I tell myself that I want to learn. But frequently, on a weekend, I find myself doing... Not much. It's not that I don't work on all these skills I'm trying to develop. I do an hour here, an hour there. But thinking about the vast expanse of time I could have if I retired, I think it sounds great, and yet I wonder if I would actually use the time productively or if I would sit around and atrophy.

As for steveo73's comment about doing nothing: the last time I had a week of vacation time with no travel plans (this was between finishing one job and starting my current one), I did nothing, and I felt relaxed and great. I went for walks, worked out in the middle of the day, etc. But doing that for a week, or two, or a month, is different to considering the years I'll hopefully have to myself once I'm FI.

[cmonkey]

I know the feeling of wanting to do many things in my free time as well, and not getting anywhere. There are literally hundreds of tasks to do on a homestead and so its hard to balance them. I have been working on this problem this year and have made things a bit easier on myself. I originally found that I would bounce around from project to project not getting anything done. The simple fix for this is to take pleasure in actually finishing something. At the end of the day I think about what I finished as opposed to what I didn't. Using this method, the DW and I have both noticed we get a lot more accomplished and we enjoy what we are doing a lot more.

Keep the mental blinders on, focused on what you are doing, instead of pondering what else you want to do. Strategic thinkers that are aware of their mortality are bound to have this problem, so don't worry about it too much.

[champ0608]

When I hear or read things like this, I see it as a sign of extreme institutionalization. You've gotten to the point in life that you can't entertain yourself without a boss telling you what to do. I hear guys complain about their job all the time but follow it up with "but it sure beats laying around all day with nothing to do." Sad, sad, sad.

Go for a walk, ride a bike, read a book, tend a garden, brew some beer, paint a landscape, play an instrument, take up golf or tennis or bowling or softball, go metal detecting, yoga, karate, marathons, or, just take a nap.

The point of retirement is to do what you want, when you want. I personally can not imagine being willing to trade the ability to do that, with employment, for the sake of otherwise not being able to find things for myself to do (or not do.)