Using Adversity as Motivation towards ERE

pooablo · Post by **pooablo** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 3:08 am

It's been the fourth day on my new job and I've already had a spat with one of my workers which made things very stressful for me. I found that I was tense all day from that encounter.
On the bright side, going through that experience has motivated me to focus on my goal of ERE. I realized that as long as I have to work to live, I will always face difficult people at work.
I will try not to stress out about this (easier said than done!) but I am going to start making some drastic cuts in my personal lifestyle.
The first thing I will cut is my travel budget: no more travelling until ERE. This will easily save me $5M to $6M in travel expenses. Travelling for that much is not worth having to deal with a douche bag at work for another year!
Even demons can spur you onto the path of enlightment.
Have any of you used adversity to motivate you towards making drastic changes in your life?

dragoncar · Post by **dragoncar** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 5:26 am

"This will easily save me $5M to $6M in travel expenses."
Whaat?
Edit: Wait, do you use roman numerals because you're a banker or something?

pooablo · Post by **pooablo** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 5:45 am

@dragoncar Hehe. There definitely could be some misunderstanding there! We do use roman numerals in the bank for shorthand. I meant to say $5,000 to $6,000 (we do use M for thousands at the Bank that I work at). That was my annual spend on travelling last year; but after going to San Francisco this past month, I realized that travelling does have the same life energy value for me as it once did.
Besides, I think trying out a stay-cation would be nice and, oddly enough, unconventional.

Post by **jacob** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 6:36 am

This explains the flash crash: A banker talking to a rocket scientist.
Kinda like how one of the Mars probes crashed due to NASA talking to ESA.

DutchGirl · Post by **DutchGirl** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 7:59 am

.
Where do you live, pooablo? I'm pretty sure there are enough things to see and do there, too. Maybe if you give me a general location, I can give you my wishlist of things to do there, if I lived there.
( I live in Delft, The Netherlands; you could also make me a wishlist of things you would do if you lived here. For me, Delft is just the place where my house is; but I meet many tourists on my way to the supermarket ).

palmera · Post by **palmera** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 4:41 pm

Yeah - my own wake up call was when a group of us low-level employees started getting bullied to the point where we'd be crying and comforting each other in the washroom once a week. When you're 25 years old you take it really hard and think something's really wrong with you, as oppose to realizing you were just part of a top level strategy to force people into quitting so you aren't eligible to receive a severance (btw, we all banded together, fought and received generous severances).
My introductory rant can be found here: viewtopic.php?t=1400&replies=16#post-20107

pooablo · Post by **pooablo** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 12:15 am

@Dutchgirl That's a fantastic idea! I live in the capital city of Alberta.

I've been to the Netherlands before and I visited Groningen, Wassenar, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Tilburg, and Maastrict while I was there. I love the country! Very easy to bike around and very friendly people. What's Delft like? I just Googled the town and it looks beautiful.
@Bigato I can empathize with you. It's amazing how you just wake up one day and realize that there are other more interesting and fulfilling paths in life. It's easy to lose sight there are more important things than work and stuff. Sometimes I forget that I can leave my job at any time because of my frugal lifestyle.
@Palmera Wow, I am impressed that you and your co-workers stood up for yourselves. I will take your post to heart that we hold a lot more power than we give ourselves credit for.

chilly · Post by **chilly** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 12:17 am

Sorry to hear about that first day pooably (and palmera!)... stressful enough to begin with.
I second @bigato's advice.... it really is a liberating experience in and of itself to prepare for ERE as you are trying to do. Even if you are 'on-the-fence' with timing... just having it within your sights at any given time can take the edge off the stress. I'm never one to slouch on the clock, but that doesn't mean I can't take things less to heart than I otherwise would.
Follow the path you've laid out and maybe you'll find that the negatives start melting away and you can reach a balance where you're still adding to your savings but not stressing out as much about it... at least for a little while.

pooablo · Post by **pooablo** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 12:19 am

@Jacob. Interesting. I never knew that. Is it because NASA uses the imperial system and ESA uses the metric system?

Canadians are weird that way. We use the metric system for driving (km/hour) and temperature (C) but the imperial system for height (inches and feet) and weight (lbs)!

rcamp · Post by **rcamp** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 2:11 am

@pooablo yes. 2 things.
Some of my closest friends know that I have scars (mental) from layoffs. I feared twice before about being able to provide shelter for my DW and son and feed him. Those scars keep me .. resolute in my actions.
Spats and day to day annoyances don't factor as much now as I learned more often than not they are transient. I remember more than others so its tough.
The other matter was NASA and ESA. Yeah, it was imperial vs metric and no one bothered to check the data they were fed....