Gus' road to retirement

Where are you and where are you going?
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Mister Imperceptible
Posts: 1669
Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2017 4:18 pm

Re: Gus' road to retirement

Post by Mister Imperceptible »

If 99942 Apophis is Earthbound would helping to devise a nuclear deflection or some other species-saving effort be considered as something new in life?

classical_Liberal
Posts: 2283
Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2016 6:05 am

Re: Gus' road to retirement

Post by classical_Liberal »

I think slow decline and eventual death, from an individual perspective, is a gift. Coming to the realization you speak of can be used for great things. Just think about it, you HAVE to take advantage of what you have TODAY.

I don't know the life you've lived to this point, but even if you've managed to experience everything the world has to offer (which I obviously highly doubt), even repeating the same things, at a different phases of life, makes it an entirely new experience. On my last road trip we stayed a night at the Great Sand Dunes National Park. It wasn't my first time. I went on a hike alone and relived going to this park as a young child with my parents, old, faint memories. Then again in my Early 20's when I finally felt like an independent adult. Then again with a GF in my early 30's, just after I quit banking and decided suburban, middle-class, family life wasn't for me. Now, again, right after semi-ERE. Strange, I never planned this as some kind of ritual, yet it seems like for some reason I alway end up there at a change point in my life. After that hike I felt like I was cleansed, ready for the next phase. It's different each time.

classical_Liberal
Posts: 2283
Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2016 6:05 am

Re: Gus' road to retirement

Post by classical_Liberal »

A bit morbid on the friend selection angle, but otherwise a great update. :D

I'm glad you made the decision to get out of your funk and buy the house. It seems like that's really what you wanted to do. I like your attitude about trying to plan too far, I think @BSOG had come to the same conclusion last year. I tend to feel the same way, but my actions don't always reflect it. It seems I oscillate between analysis paralysis and then overcommitment. It takes me forever to make a big commitment because I don't wanna F-up for future me, yet when I finally make a decision I overwork towards it, even if it's not panning out right. I refuse to take the outs when they are available. It's weird, but you seem to have a similar mentality. Learning that most decisions tend to have a nonpermance to them is important. Afterall, if you change your mind in a few years and wanna LCOL retire, it's not like you can't.

Happy 2020!

fingeek
Posts: 249
Joined: Wed May 24, 2017 8:16 am
Location: Wales

Re: Gus' road to retirement

Post by fingeek »

Augustus wrote:
Thu Jan 02, 2020 5:56 pm
I think I'm finally out of the depression, feeling pretty good and not anxious for the past few weeks. It's like my old self came back to life. It really came down to focus. Whatever you focus on is how you're going to feel, IOTW you become what you think about. Best friend dying, my parents are aging and going to die, recognizing my own decay and mortality, etc all suck. But there's plenty of good stuff going on too, I love my family, I have a great life, it's really beautiful in SoCal, palm trees are still blowing outside my window. The cure to my depression was simply to shift focus, stop thinking about the bad stuff. You can learn from depressing things, but it's the same old story of diminishing returns. After a while you're not learning anything new anymore, you're just opting to be miserable, which is stupid. Simple solution, difficult to implement, hard to break habits of thought.
Glad to hear. And thanks for sharing this too, it resonates well and is pretty helpful indeed to take on this viewpoint. One thing that does, however, really help me is my daily journal in which I record at least one person I'm grateful for.

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