Mindset during early retirement initial days

[MyObjectivism]

Hi.. like to create this post to share my experiences how mindset and thought process is changing during FIRE journey. Will be sharing more from the time I told my employer about retirment and exit date.

43 years old, IT professional, started thinking about early retirement from last couple of years (without knowing about FIRE terminology), reached goals 3-4 years early so made quick decisions and informed employer.

From the time I mentioned about leaving the organisation in Sep 2019 to employer, mind slowly started settling down. Started experiencing glimpse of how the mind will be after retiring. That hint or glimpse whatever I experienced in Nov/Dec is mostly different from state of mind at that time free from stress, rushness and whatever corporates bring into one's mind.

Hope as days goes on, will be living with more clarity especially in my own natural rhythm than whatever winding happened to my mind from last 30+ years (counted from the time of college days to corporate world).



Milestones (so far):



Sep 2019 - Informed employer that I will be leaving in last week of May 2020. Ya..it is very well advance notice considering attachment with the organisation.

May 2020 - Want to retire in India (and not in UK) so just waiting for flights to resume back to India and exit. So waiting period is still going on.

Mindset and thought process ..

Earlier entire world of mine was Office with stress and rush being natural rhythm of mind. And whatever we do in life ..office related, personal related, fun, travel etc was with same frequency.. always rush, stress etc. Ofcourse in few activities, I was getting bit relaxation and fun but quickly mind was going into its natural state of stress, rush etc. From this so called natural (artificial) state, able to experience few glimpse of settled state after couple of weeks of informing employer about Exit.

During Nov/Dec 2019.. able to really feel how relaxed mind can be even though it was not complete relaxed and real natural state of mind. But am sure it is happening and going to happen.. real unwinding of mind and settling into real natural rhythm (may be like how mind was in childhood.. don't know whether it is too much optimistic.. let's wait and see). Only time can answer it.

March 2020 (UK lockdown and in-person meetings reduced).. During this lockdown time, not going out and even though I am doing work, clearly mind is able to see OFFICE universe as a seperate thing and it is not mine. For outside world, I may be doing the work as usual. But mind started disowning (don't know what we exactly say) and able to see clear difference between how mind was oscillating earlier (before Sep 2019) and now.

Able to see mind is in more relaxed, spending good quality time with family (cant tell it is best but improving).

Earlier eventhough physically with family, most of the times mind will be in Office than at the present moment.

Able to be more conscious now about what is going on inside. Difference between yoga now and couple of years back is.. appreciating what is going inside. Earlier I used to do in a rush and once we step out of yoga session, mind is busy and even won't bother about the joy yoga session gave (may be for few min we were conscious). But now, able to feel the joy any workout or yoga was giving to me. So consciously aware of what is going on.

Hope unwinding happens fully and mind goes to its real natural state soon.

Like to know your experiences.

[UK-with-kids]

I can definitely relate to this. I don't work much at the moment, but once my head has got into something for only a few hours, when I go back to eat with my family it's like I'm still in that other world and I can't snap out of it. I've found that working in an office in particular can make you institutionalised over time to some extent.

[sky]

I quit my job and drove a camper van out into the desert and camped in remote areas for some time. I spent a good part of my days looking at the desert mountains and sky, doing nothing. I found that therapeutic. During that time I also formulated my personal philosophy on how to live well, based on the Greek philosopher Epicurus.

Now, almost 5 years later, I wake up every morning and ask myself: what can I do today to improve my life? My list of things to do is usually mundane, home maintenance, car maintenance, hobby projects, physical activity, helping my wife or parents with one of their projects. Mondays are my "tabletops, mow, weed and trim" day, with tabletops meaning organize my desk, countertops, bathroom sink, work bench and any other flat surfaces where I put things. Trim means personal care such as beard trim, haircut, nail trim, etc. I have managed to simplify things so I only need a few hours a day to keep everything in order.