His criteria of sunny climate, low taxes, abundant adventure, and fit people sound pretty good to me.
there's definitely worse.
bryan wrote:
I would preach a bit of skepticism about putting too much weight into one's imagined future, though; especially for someone very young without much experience. Many times the actual future won't be close to one's expectations.
so much this. brute could never have imagined his future, even just a few years ago for a rolling period at least 7-10 years back. shit just kept happening, and brute felt more like a twig in a river than anything. most of the shit was good in some way, some of it was bad in some ways. overall, brute can't complain, but he also can't claim that he "did" any of it.
Seriously, planning helps to direct focus but life rarely turns out the way I planned. I wish I could say I was responsible for my successes but I just took advantage of the opportunities in my path. Some of these I had to create but they were unique to my own situation and not predictable 5 years in advance.
I think it varies from person to person. If your strategy is general enough then you have a good chance of reaching your goals. The ability to control your future is correlated with your conscientiousness and where your are at in the actualization process.
I agree with Daylen - having a general idea and strategy works to direct one's focus. You can't control people or places, but you can control the people you allow in your life and where you live
I remember gleaning a bit of your earlier adventures from other topics (Amherst, investing job at a foundation, polyamory etc.) and have read the latest few pages of this topic (looking at completely unrelated jobs and specialties)... Is there any summary of your journey for those not willing to read 15 pages? Must have been quite a ride...
@NPV: Yeah - > Graduates college -> gets punched in the face -> learns how to swim
I use to think that one can be happy no matter the corcumstances. But I think humans are more affected by their envoronment. One is more likely to be happy in a sunny, warm climate; more likely to be happy if drinking enough water and eating enough healthful food; more likely to be happy if surrounded by close friends, a partner, and family; and more likely to be happy if financially secure and doing meaningful work. The goal then is to consistently attain these factors.
I'll be flying out of NY this Monday (thank goodness!). My dad was able to connect me with a regional manager of various commercial apartment buildings. She needs an Assistant Manager to train to be a regional manager. I use to love being a Campus Center Manager and Residential Counselor. I also have enjoyed learning and managing real estate from dealing with apartment renting. Finally, the job is in sunny Miami and my expenses will be close to $0 besides orthodontia stuff. Pay for the job is 35K, with lots of downtime to study whatever I want on the side. I'll be able to help the parent's around the house too, even helping sub-lease part of it to pay off the mortgage quicker. This could be gold ya'll~
One idea I've finally come to terms with is that life is hard, and irrelevant of any identities or warped expectations, the only way to succeed is to work harder. To embrace the suck, so to speak. The main reason why Amherst appeared as a safe oasis is because it sits on billions of dollars in endowment money. It seems I've been slowly undoing all of the ill expectations AC created for the real world. This is good, because now I can operate under working world expectations, and not privileged liberal arts college expectations.
One idea I've finally come to terms with is that life is hard
This is certainly true today in many parts of the world where people deal with war, famine, hunger, lack of medical care etc. But in US? This is surely the best time in the history of our species to be alive and US is one of the best places to live. Life in the West is pretty much on an easy mode nowadays - basically any job pays enough to cover basic needs and then some, and one still has 60h a week left to pursue one's interests (or other activities to satisfy higher order needs from Maslov's pyramid).
Congratulations Fox! This sounds like a perfect setup for you. I visited NYC once, and it struck me as somewhere that is stressful as hell for young people trying to save tons of money and enjoy the ERE life. Epecially if they're not stocking away big bucks in finance or tech. You'll probably feel like a completely different person in 3-5 months.
As for the importance of the grind, I agree with you completely. Do you have any kind of intense & early-morning exercise regime? I ask because Jocko Willink & Joe Rogan inspired me to weightlift early in the morning, and it has made all the difference in my life. I'm not sure if it's the testosterone boost, or that your mind gets calloused and you can deal with more suffering in general, or a combination of things, but I swear, waking up before 5 AM to lift heavy weights makes you feel like you can do anything. You get a massive mental victory before everyone else is even awake. This is all coming from someone who used to HATE waking up early, too. It's just helped an indescribable amount with embracing life's suck.
Started lifting weights and running every day as opposed to whenever I feel like it. Getting tons more sun too, and drinking a 1/2 gallon of water a day. Cut my hair like George Clooney, except mine is still brown. I think I'm done being your stereotypical sensitive millenial hipster. Let's start a new phase LOL: well-built, well-travelled, masculine capitalist Fox. Still need a job, hoping this college job at @20-25/hr 3 mi from home works out. Let's play the entertain myself with other job apps game for now.
Must have been quite a ride...
