Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Thank you for the recommendation! I added it to my book list. I have been part of many pagan adjacent circles, but have yet to dive deeper into exactly what it is. I am curious to learn more!

berrytwo wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 22, 2023 1:49 pm

At a little past dusk, I cleaned my room super thoroughly and gathered all the supplies I might need...

Thanks for sharing this, it jogged something loose for me and I'm going to try to start up a similar practice.

By the way you might be interested in this - my brother just wrote a piece about how he's using Obsidian as his personal knowledge base taking concepts from zettelkasten, Ahrens (How to Take Smart Notes), and a dash of GTD. He doesn't mention it but his GTD task tracking system (next actions etc) is a separate software, so Obsidian is pure knowledge base / processing stuff. I've just started to adopt something similar and it feels like a final missing piece of my System is falling in to place.

@AH Would love to hear what you end up doing for a ritual like this! Also...Interesting to read about your brother's system. The section on daily, and weekly notes was helpful in looking at how I would like to expand on my Notes to Self folder of my Obsidian Vault. His article made me realize that I want to prioritize learning more about Obsidian tools. I somewhat regret putting both my GTD and Smartnotes into one Obsidian vault. I think it may get confusing as my Smart Notes system gets more complicated. Might be best to just make a second vault now... Is there a reason why you use Evernote for GTD rather than Obsidian?

I'm pretty sure Obsidian didn't exist when I span up my first GTD system in Evernote in 2011, and I didn't know about Obsidian when I moved to Standard Notes a couple years ago, otherwise I might have moved it.

With using Obsidian as a PKB and decoupling all that project reference information from where I had it in my GTD system up until now, I can see that my action management system is going to be very lightweight. Managing next, soon, later, etc actions, and contexts, and etc all of a sudden seems very straightforward now that I've moved all the heavy thinking and idea-development stuff onto Obsidian. For now I'm going to leave traditional 'GTD Functions' in Standard Notes as I gain competence with Obsidian and the management of my PKB. I could see deciding to move GTD functions into a separate Obsidian vault later, or just using two platforms. I don't have any reasons not to run GTD stuff in Obsidian other than I've already got a tool that runs it fine.

I do love how easy it is to copy/split vaults with Obsidian. Just establish a new folder as a vault in Obsidian, and then copy or cut-paste all the .md's from old vault to new vault in your OS's file system. Also super easy to make backups - just copy-paste the mds to an archive folder somewhere.

January Journal Update:

Getting excited about this coming year. I have been spending a lot of time on creating visions of what I am moving towards this year. My workflow has felt like it is really in a groove. I am hoping to have 10 big goals/ projects for this year.

Here are the notes I have about the first 6 from my Obsidian/ Journal:

1)Meet 100 different facilitators through workshops, retreats, classes, and my Wwoof experience later this year and take detailed notes about what I notice. There are many free or donation-based facilitation groups where I live. Last week I went to an Internal Family Systems Workshop that was super cool. I also am on an advisory council for an intentional community where there are super-experienced facilitators I can take notes from.

2) **Project name:** Functional website
**Desired outcome:** aesthetically pleasing website with blog and potential to publish classes/ workshops
**Why? How will it improve your life?** Fun way to express myself, get writing out there, and make use of my collective Ni/Fe. Is there a way to have money be a byproduct of my Fe/ Ni in a way that feels good/ aligned? Donation-based classes?
**How will you know when it is done?** Posted on the internet for others to use with domain name

The website is one that feels like there is something getting in my way. Part of it is I am not super techy, but also have a big thing for aesthetics so I cringe at what I have started. Another aspect is imposter syndrome.

3) **Project name:** Systems From Your Higher Self
**Desired outcome:** Create a comprehensive system that I can follow that develop routines from my higher self for my day-to-day self
**Why? How will it improve your life?** Having clear systems for my life routines will help me fix broken links, move me toward my higher self, and develop a stronger/ more trusting relationship with myself
**How will you know when it is done?** I know this project will be done when I have written clearly what daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly habits/ Routines I would like to follow. There should also be a routine around making sure that these are looked at so I can trust my system.

This project has been mostly finished (at least for the first iteration). Now it is just following through and adjusting what isn’t working.
AAT
4) **Project name:** Mindful eating routine
**Desired outcome:** Have a consistent pattern of the normal eating path that becomes the natural tendencies
**Why? How will it improve your life?** I feel content, ease, and confidence when I eat with the normal eating pattern. I want to experience more ease and less worry.
**How will you know when it is done?** I record 66 days, honestly, and rate myself on my ability to make a conscious choice with every food decision, check hunger level before I eat, stay between 3-7

5)Co-facilitate a multi-day course/ workshop
6) 3 seriously Plotkin-esque experiences.





Book(s) in review for this month:

Currently, I am reading Spiral Dynamics (Beck and Cowan). I am only 100 pages in, but it has been one of the most influential books I’ve ever read. It has helped piece together so many things, brought depth and appreciation to ERE, and helped expand my understanding of the world. More ramblings to come
10/10 recommend

Designing Your Life: Found this book at a little free library. I would guess that this book was written by an SJ, so it brought a different flavor than my usual NF/ NT perspective. The two authors have a background in product design which is an interesting twist. Had a few helpful exercises included, but a lot of it was pretty basic and consumer-focused.

Four-Hour Work Week: I think it is super important to read books/articles/ talk to people who are different from you. I have seen this book written about all over the forums, and not to yuck other people’s yum’s, but the book made me cringe at parts quite a bit. I saw a lot of elements of healthy and also unhealthy Orange throughout the book. Healthy Orange I am down with, but unhealthy Orange sends shivers down my spine. That being said, there were some really good nuggets that I did take away from parts of the book.

Mind of the Soul: Found this book on my mom’s book shelf and read it. The book was about intentions. I am not sure if it was the best book ever written about intentions/ intuition, but it did have some nice truism reminders.


Liminal Space Rambling
In all, this last month has been a reflective and connective time for me. It all kind of felt like a haze. I have been able to see a lot of really important people that are scattered around the world, that came back for the holidays. I signed up to do Ultimate Frisbee again this season, which I am looking forward to. Also planning to do a class on Co-counciling. I feel very much in a liminal space as I plan for my departure from my current home and make moves towards the unknown. I feel a real energetic shift inward.

I kind of agree with your take on "4 Hour Work Week." I liked some aspects of it when I first read it, but implementing some of his advice into my own business turned out to be kind of a huge mistake. Somewhere in "ERE" the book, Jacob writes something like "Don't outsource functions upon which your survival depends!" and that is definitely the down-side of the philosophy of "4HWW" and general Level Orange tendency towards optimization. Another downside of this flavor of advice, in my experience, would be along the lines of "nature abhors a vacuum." After I down-sized/out-sourced my own business much in the manner of 4HWW, I still ended up being sucked into helping my second "husband" with his business.

I'm going to write some more about it in my own journal, but I am recently very much sucked into a rabbit hole of reading/practicing Intuitive Eating/Gentle Nutrition, which I assume may be somewhat in alignment with your Mindful Eating practice. I think reading and writing about the book "Erotic Capital" sort of pushed me over the line to a place where the Level Orange take, although "true" on some level, just seems rather barbaric when unhealthy and/or over-applied.

Interesting to hear what projects you have planned for the year, particularly no. 3. It'll be interesting to hear your thoughts as you build this higher system up.

Spiral Dynamics has been on my to-read list for some time; that you found it so profound makes me wonder if it should be higher up...

@Avalok Do it! I think you will really like the book It reads like poetry. And thanks for the encouragement on my projects, #3 is a fav of mine too. It has become multiple whole sections of my Obsidian titled "Notes about Self" and "Habits". Subsections include notes about things I like, and how I feel after different activities. I am playing with really questioning my routines. Am I doing things because I like them/ I feel good/ they are in my best interest or because that's the way I have always done them/ seen the script written? And what does it mean to feel good? For instance, I like the taste of coffee. It tastes good. I definitely don't think better afterward and my heart beats quite fast (just with one cup.) In the end, I could just decide that I like/feel best with what I am doing now, but at that point it will be a conscious choice, which is what I am aiming for. I am prepared for there to be a lot to shift in the larger process, but having a lot of fun with experimenting so far.

@7w5 Seems like we are on a similar train with intuitive eating/ intuitive everything right now and are wrestling with similar living questions!

berrytwo wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 24, 2023 10:00 pm

AAT talks about repairing binge-restrict patterns with food (and normalized overeating/ emotional eating/ disordered eating patterns of our modern world). Craighead explores deprivation psychology, internal-based cues, and how to actually change preferences ...This book has been insightful for me on both a personal level and I’ve enjoyed connecting many of the elements of this book to broader ideas, especially as it relates to ERE.

I was just speaking to a friend who was describing a binge/restriction pattern with money and it was fascinating. Reading my AAT book left me with similar questions as the bookgroup q's you wrote a few days ago in your journal, especially #2 as it related to my conversation with my friend.

2) Could "Intuitive Spending" without tracking of metrics have some utility? Maybe just prove helpful to humans who have formed the sort of psychological resistance to "budgeting" that many eventually form in relationship to "dieting"?

I think metrics are an interesting thing. Having goals that are shame-based doesn't seem to do much good for me, even if they sometimes can be technically helpful in weight loss. Projects and or goals that are more aligned with my overall wellness and that are positivity-oriented work better for my temperament and feel a lot more effective and make weight loss more of a side effect. Although, Shia Labeouf-esque motivation "MAKE YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE" I find kind of endearing too. I think that people who have binge restrict or overspending habits can sometimes experience shame/ regret too and can get into deprivation feeling loops. Exploring deprivation/ satiation has been the most helpful thing yet. How can I feel fully satiated in all different types of hunger: eye hunger, nose hunger, mouth hunger, stomach hunger, mind hunger, cellular hunger, and heart hunger? Is buying this thing/ eating this muffin going to fill that type of hunger? Is there another way to meet my needs? I guess that kinda translates to spending as well. It's fun to imagine mapping eating/ eating culture onto spiral/Wheaton levels...

Updates:

Bicycle7 (DH if you hadn't already put it together ) and I have been making big moves for our adventure!! We told our landlord. I let the woman know in the Bay that I want to stay with her. I have also been looking into Vipassana retreats (they are completely free and also have covered room and board!)

Joined MMG #2, Yay!

I am interested in crossing the moat into WL6. Started making a bunch of movable reverse fishbones and playing with AH's idea of heaps and piles. I realized just how much I am craving practices that activate presence for me, especially in this planning phase of my life.

Frisbee: enjoying being in my Se and activating my super under-developed Red subpersonality. Getting a good workout from it. I think that women's self-defense could be a cool other Se, healthy Red activity that I could do.

Sewing: Got the sewing machine up and running. Using gold thread in honor of the idea of Wabi-sabi (a Japanese aesthetic that has reverence for "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete" things and uses gold to mend broken objects.) DH is interested in becoming better at fixing the sewing machine, while I am more interested in the actual sewing itself (could be a cool setup!)

I have been feeling particularly touched by the article theanimal posted about agency, and feeling really moved to create more opportunities to invite agency and serendipity into my life.

Ha, I didn’t know you were a couple! Fun. I’ve gotten interested in a Japanese mending style called Sashiko, which definitely has a wabi sabi ethos to it. It’s hand stitching in the vein of visible mending. Any way, not really important but just a comment to say enjoy learning about sewing! sewing is a big world and so much practical possibilities.

berrytwo wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 05, 2024 11:50 pm

Bicycle7 (DH if you hadn't already put it together ) and I have been making big moves for our adventure!! We told our landlord. I let the woman know in the Bay that I want to stay with her. I have also been looking into Vipassana retreats (they are completely free and also have covered room and board!)

Congrats on both fronts! When are you two shoving off to other shores? Feel free to stop by if you are headed through our neck of the woods.

berrytwo wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 05, 2024 11:50 pm

Bicycle7 (DH if you hadn't already put it together)

Oops my bad, *DP (Not married quite yet) We realized that we weren't "Forums official" and thought it'd be fun for people to know who haven't met us in MMG groups or Fest.

mountainFrugal wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 07, 2024 6:13 pm

Congrats on both fronts! When are you two shoving off to other shores? Feel free to stop by if you are headed through our neck of the woods.

Thank you! We are shooting for the end of March/ early April to be on the road and slowly make our way South. We actually will be driving your way and we'd love to stop by!

mooretrees wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 06, 2024 12:17 am

Ha, I didn’t know you were a couple! Fun. I’ve gotten interested in a Japanese mending style called Sashiko, which definitely has a wabi sabi ethos to it. It’s hand stitching in the vein of visible mending. Any way, not really important but just a comment to say enjoy learning about sewing! sewing is a big world and so much practical possibilities.

Ooo looking forward to looking into Sashiko, seems right up my alley! Sewing is such a big world. I have a lot to learn, but it seems endless in its potential. I am starting on the mending front and hoping to gain skills in tailoring as well as eventually being able to make things like bike frame bags and such.

Hey! Just found your journal. Looking forward to seeing you in the MMG. I enjoyed our chat one night over dishes at EREFest .. glad we will be connected in the MMG!

sodatrain wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 07, 2024 11:22 pm

Hey! Just found your journal. Looking forward to seeing you in the MMG. I enjoyed our chat one night over dishes at EREFest .. glad we will be connected in the MMG!

Looking forward to connecting with you as well!!

Your Money Or Your Life/ Questioning Semi-ere and Workingman Quadrant/ WOGs on bigger WOGs


For several weeks I have doing a fair bit of WOG work, both with present day and what my larger life WoGs may build to. I finished YMOYL and have been integrating insights from it to wider life perspectives. Examining my larger life systems, I have been riding the line between excited/ inspired vs anxious/ overwhelmed.

I have been exploring how semi-ERE makes sense/ doesn’t make sense for me within my given context. Currently, I would categorize myself as semi-ere and in Workingman quatrant as a substitute teacher. I work 1-4 days per week and have agency of when and how much I work. I actually mostly really like it, feel free, and feel a sense of balance. I have plenty of time for self-development, I make a decent bit an hour, and can be very present to focus on aspects of my WOG.

There is a growing feeling of doubt, however, about this/ other part-time work as my strategy for the next several years. I wonder if I have jumped a necessary step of creating enough of an economic sailboat to really glide into my future (2.5x yearly expenses). I don’t want to discount the different set of goals I could reach if I were to switch to full-time work/ salary work for a period of time. I know there is not one right answer, but these are big living questions for me. I want to be fully conscious when making this decision and to avoid situations where I lose my sense of alive-ness.

berrytwo wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 10, 2024 7:49 pm

I actually mostly really like it, feel free, and feel a sense of balance.

If this is the case, you've already accomplished what many are seeking.

I think there is a lot of "grass is greener" that happens, well, everywhere, I guess. I understand the anxiety and overwhelm that comes with trying to make big life decisions. Every choice made leaves other choices unexplored. If you are mostly happy, though, and aren't precariously balancing on the edge of financial ruin, why go and make a wholesale lifestyle change?

In terms of the ERE financial behaviors quadrant, if unstated goal is to move towards the renaissance man quadrant (is it? what is the goal?), I don't think the best path is through the salary man quadrant. They have to adjust their behaviors on two axes. That doesn't mean a salaried job can't be used by someone operating under a different mindset. If the salaried job accomplishes several goals in the WOG, like being a social outlet and a skill builder in addition to making money, maybe it's not the worst thing. Especially if you ditch it the second it is no longer serving your goals like you want it to. None of my salaried jobs started out horrible, they just became that way after the learning goal was no longer being served. Had I known myself better, been true to myself, and had a better framework for thinking, so much misery could have been avoided.

grundomatic wrote: ↑
I think there is a lot of "grass is greener" that happens, well, everywhere, I guess. I understand the anxiety and overwhelm that comes with trying to make big life decisions. Every choice made leaves other choices unexplored. If you are mostly happy, though, and aren't precariously balancing on the edge of financial ruin, why go and make a wholesale lifestyle change?

Thanks so much for your perspective. It has actually been really helpful in my thinking process. I have been thinking about you and Candide when visualizing doing my Full-time education work and how much I want to avoid any situations that put me at risk for complete burnout. I know that both of you have experienced the stress and overwhelm that it can be to have a teaching job. It's important for me both to do a good ol' Ni check on if I do pick a job to make sure that the grass would be green enough for my entire life WOG eco-system to flourish/ stay alive (not just convince myself that it probably won't be that bad) and also to make sure I am having an active practice in feeling enoughness and joy where I am at in this moment. It's also probably true, there is a level of trust I do have to have in myself knowing that I have no debt or children/pets right now and I have a float for a fairly long time. YMOYL talks about hare vs. tortoise, that there is a huge range in how fast someone wants/ can get to FIRE. On one level I think it could be fine to just stick with what I am doing, do just a spoonful at a time and focus on finding more access to inner freedom and other yields/ flows.

I have been zooming in and out of these WoG systems and imagining skills, experiences, and general feelings I'd like to have in my life, what I am currently craving and what I anticipate I will be craving. I do have a goal of becoming more Renaissance-y. I value balance and depth, and exploring how to cultivate both.

Journal Update:

I have been working on a collage card deck with questions/ activities on the back. My favorite so far has been the question: describe your intuition as an image. If anyone feels inspired, I would love to hear different images. B7 and I were talking to a new housemate who is a Ne dom about how our intuition is different from hers. I described Ni as a layered map, where you can toggle between various layers and see the terrain with different perspectives. She gave a reflection about how it is like creating different worlds to look through. Her description of Ne was textbook (and she hasn’t read about it before.) She described it as a universe of possibilities, connecting. Ne bouncing back and forth with Ni hits hard for me.

Spring equinox was a week or so ago and I carried on my new tradition of a solo quarterly check in ceremony. I toyed with the idea of having an agenda beforehand, but deciding on just allowing what flowed, guided by some ideas I had come up with before and the supplies I had in front of me (WOG, colored paint markers, paper, journals, planner, collage inspo…) I ended up sitting with some ideas and living questions that have been alive for me. I felt an image of my life sinking into the Spring, small seeds that have been watered and planted growing, and unknown seeds yet to be planted.


Otherwise, I have been feeling like some loose ends are being tied up, which has felt relieving. We leave in less than a week. Feel grateful that I have minimal things, so big transitions like this can be more easily possible.

Skillathon:
I have been loosely doing skillathon this year. I have been focusing on learning facilitation skills and practicing it. I have a document where I jot down observations or reflections after watching facilitators in my daily life and reflecting on how I want to integrate skills into my own practice. I also have been doing some facilitation myself in my women’s group, in a local council group, and in an advisory board role for my intentional community.

Collage has been my latest skill that I have been diving into, and I imagine I will fade out of that as I transition out of my house. I pick up magazines in little free libraries/ trade with friends. I found that an exacto knife helps a lot!

I am planning for my uke to be the next skill where I deep dive. I plan to bring it on our adventure so I have a chance to play it a lot

describe your intuition as an image. If anyone feels inspired, I would love to hear different images.

Like a young creature that is half-monkey, half-terrier with a multi-tool machete, flash-light, and label-maker in its mouth is running down an encyclopedic trail following brightly lit "See Also" signs which appear at frequent junctures that branch out across The Map of Trails, and then the sudden strong smell of a bone that is a bone of a known animal is encountered, and the creature drops the tool and picks up the bone, and the strong smell becomes a rope attached to the bone which deforms that section of the trail system as the creature tugs on it, and then the creature uses the machete to create the shortest path across the newly deformed landscape to the location of the known animal source of the newly found bone, and then creates a new label at that juncture, points flashlight at it and starts excitedly barking.

berrytwo wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 04, 2024 12:48 pm

describe your intuition as an image. If anyone feels inspired, I would love to hear different images.

An immense Dnd style gelatinous cube, that sifts through books, blog posts, videos, basically endless amounts of information, ripping out and collecting chunks / pages of information / ideas, then sifting them through the ooze to try and smush them together with other collected blobs of info, seeing if they fit together properly, and if so, leaving the new amalgamation together for the next iteration of idea absorption. If not, shoving them off to a slightly emptier section of the cube. When asked questions, it will shift around through the blob, looking for the most related idea fusion, and spit it out at the questioner (even if much too complex for the question answered).