A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Where are you and where are you going?
7Wannabe5
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Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 9:03 am

Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

I am happy to hear that you aren't entirely leaving. I believe you lend a certain zen gravitas ballast to this forum which is of great value.


P.S. I was afraid you might be being put-off by my references to diapers. Unfortunately, I have lately been much in the company of people around age 80 who are in temporary or permanent diaper phase due to variety of disease and decrepitude, so I have been darkly dwelling on the possibility.

IlliniDave
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Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2014 7:46 pm

Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

Parting Thoughts, Part III

7Wb5, I suspect if someone honks me off enough I cut ties, it won't be you. I am only smart enough understand about a third of what you write anyway. "Gravitas" is not a word often applied to me, haha. Likely that was the first instance.

To continue and perhaps conclude the list...

*A random rejoinder. Strategy doesn't pay the bills. It's my caution to: "never confuse results with strategy." Can a lifetime's decent results be a fluke? Sure, but what are the odds unless you're Forrest Gump? At some point results validate (or refute) the strategy. It's like saying, "Don't confuse a flower with a seed." However there's a rejoinder to the rejoinder: don't forget the playing field changes with time.

*I miss BRUTE's contributions.

*Remember perspective. The blind men and the elephant is the classic story. Looking at things from different perspectives (without prejudging) is valuable.

*Mr. Spock is a fictional character. My belief is that at the end of the day human behavior is overwhelmingly driven by emotion. Sometimes I think logic is just a trait we evolved to mitigate the consequences of the messes our emotions make.

*Diversity of opinion is not any sort of nasty -ism or -ophobia. We're pretty good as a group about that, but we've had our moments. There's way more division in the world than there needs to be. Demonization is not cool.

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GandK
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by GandK »

That was awesome.

Thanks for all the fish.

Fish
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Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2016 9:09 am

Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by Fish »

While shuttering your spreadsheet/journal might be an end of sorts, I think you’re on the cusp of a new adventure that will be interesting and exciting. Applying introspection and analysis to something in your life besides dull numbers is something that the community is sure to find interesting if you care to share it.

Farewell to financial-Dave, and here’s hoping that FIRE-Dave will stick around or at least report back once in a while. Congratulations on accumulating so far beyond your target that you no longer need to track it so closely.

One thing that may be interesting to keep from the iDaveSim spreadsheet is your best guess projection of NW into the future, and periodically check actual performance against it.

IlliniDave
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Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2014 7:46 pm

Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

jason, an "iDave" as a unit could indeed be somewhat of a curio hereabouts, haha. Its nearly 43x a jacob, and a bona fide ere-er could check out with one.

Fish, yeah, there's one sheet, maybe two, I'll be keeping up. And I'll keep up my companion Quicken file for as long as the software will work. It's how I manage my banking and I've become dependent on it's reminder feature when it comes to things like property taxes and insurance premiums--larger payments that are scattered randomly through the year. And I do plan to make up a sheet just like you describe--one that tracks my financial assets versus a nominal projection, maybe with a guard band or two on the low side to indicate totals falling to the point I might want to consider modifying my behavior. I'm hoping to be on this side of the dirt long enough to go through another market swoon or two. I'm also considering a new journal thread once I do pull the plug. I remember jacob saying in the past that only a minority of folks stick around once they "retire", and I don't want to be someone who "takes" while they have a need, then disappear once I don't and never give back. Thing is, being a shining example of FatFIRE (relatively speaking--I'm far from FatFIRE among the bogleheads), I'm concerned that I sometimes undermine the philosophies jacob is trying to teach. Not sure how to avoid that in a journal that's not fiction. So we'll see what I decide on that. I'll have absences while I'm off-grid, but expect to be around in some fashion.

K, thank you!

A couple followups to the list ...

Around age 14 I became a diehard Rush fan. One thing that has sort of surprised me is that more diehard Rush fans didn't find their way here given their universe of fans scooped up a lot of introverted, kindhearted, misfits (like me). Their drummer and primary lyricist, Neil Peart, passed away a couple of weeks ago from cancer. He was 12 years older than I am, and as I think it is with many writers, what he wrote often reflected a coalescing of his recent past experiences. So his words often served as signposts for me as I made my way though adolescence and the various subsequent life stages right around the time he was penning lyrics retrospective of his journey through the same stages. As an aside, the final song on their final album, "The Garden", is one I'd recommend as a helluva summary of a good life philosophy. Even though it was penned ~7 years prior to his diagnosis, and ~10 years prior to his passing, it sure looks like he might have intended it as his final song lyrics and parting message to his music fans. Back to the point, there have been a few things he's said over the years, some I picked up from past interviews, some only in the last couple weeks in the outpouring of tributes and reminiscences, that resonate with me and a couple of them seem to fit here.

One thing he said he asked himself every day, and when facing any "moral dilemma" is What would my 16-year-old self do? His goal was to make each day the "most excellent" day he could make it. It's probably worth noting that this came in the period after his first wife and daughter died within a few months of each other. I don't remember if I stated it explicitly here, but much of what I've envisioned for my future has been the product of going back to the kind of things 8-year-old iDave dreamed of doing (most notoriously that's where the cabin-in-the-Northwoods came from). So obviously he was a little more mature than I am :) and he's much more of an authority on how to live an amazing life (some chronicled in his published books), but my version of that philosophy is something I'm going to cling to as much as I can. I like to go with a younger age because kids have an amazing ability to be fully engaged in the moment, and around age 9 or 10 is where I began to be aware of social standing and all the things that begin the cascade of adolescent stress that seems not to disappear, just change form, through life thereafter.

One of my buddies from back in the day posted a link on FB to a short tribute article that recounts another biker's random meeting with Neil on an obscure back country road in West Virginia some years back. "The Professor" left him with some advice:

Never follow anyone. Be your own hero.

Looking forward, I think I'll toss a dash of that into the stew and stir it up real good.

Gilberto de Piento
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

There's a lot of wisdom in your parting thoughts. I'm happy you'll be sticking around. :D

Smashter
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Location: Midwest USA

Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by Smashter »

Such great thoughts, thank you for sharing. I'm excited to check out more of Neil Part's life philosophy and music now, I am not familiar with either.

SavingWithBabies
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Location: Midwest, USA

Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by SavingWithBabies »

I'm glad you're sticking around too (and enjoying your wrap up).

Speaking of Peart, Audible/Amazon are offering 7 of his audio books for free right now. I think you have to subscribe to Audible to actually download them but you can then cancel your Audible trial subscription and keep the downloads (I "purchased" them via Amazon but haven't bothered with the Audible part yet). So if you want some listening material for what I'm guessing is going to be some long drives in your future...

Igotgoals
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by Igotgoals »

Another person glad you aren't exiting completely.

I don't post often but read regularly and always look forward to your posts and comments.

classical_Liberal
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by classical_Liberal »

Thanks for the wisdom I-dave!

Here's one more hoping that you chronicle your transition.

IlliniDave
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

Informal/verbal notice given.

Hristo Botev
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by Hristo Botev »

To us?

IlliniDave
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

Employer

7Wannabe5
Posts: 9369
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 9:03 am

Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

Congratulations! Have you set the date?

Gilberto de Piento
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

Good for you! Very happy for you that things are rolling along.

Married2aSwabian
Posts: 265
Joined: Thu Jan 07, 2021 7:45 pm

Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by Married2aSwabian »

Wow, congratulations!

I haven’t yet read too far into your journal, but I’m a year behind you in age and approx 2 years behind in pulling the plug on working for the man.

I’m also a bit of a Rush fan and saw them in concert in Chicago in ‘83. Moving Pictures tour. It was fantastic - Neil Peart stole the show! :)

Scott 2
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by Scott 2 »

A long time coming. Congrats!

McTrex
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by McTrex »

Congratulations!

2Birds1Stone
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

Congrats indeed! Nice to see after all these years following your story.

suomalainen
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by suomalainen »

Huzzah!

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