Early Retirement Extreme Forums

fiby41 wrote: ↑

Mon May 30, 2022 12:47 pm

Once my father sat me down and said I cannot have 4 children, one (...), another taking out puncture, and so on...

What is "taking out puncture" ? It's not good, but what do you mean?

All in all, it sounds like your father told you: I want to be proud of at least one of my kids. Please make me proud and grow and learn useful things. And I'm glad that you listened to him.

In 1984 I met Nelson Vails. He handed me the Olympic silver medal he had recently won and while I was trying to pick my jaw up off the floor, he said, "You look like you have good legs for cycling. You should give it a try." I did and it changed my life.

A year later, I was worried about competing against a girl who had a very fancy European bike while I was riding a cheap borrowed no-name bike. After I won the race, my coach put his arm around my shoulders and said, "See? You don't need a fast bike if you have fast legs."

It turns out the general principle applies to a lot of things.

@DutchGirl taking out a puncture means fixing a punctured tyre. It was in relation to an earlier part of the rant which was "there are people who can afford to/ buy a new car ever year."

I'm the only child so I think it was about k- vs r-selection strategy.

A moment that changed me: I walked into the party, shy and anxious. I walked out a whole new woman
https://archive.is/1G2cw

It takes most of my time and energy to do basic tasks and attend to medical needs right now. Early on, a nurse advised me to do something every day to make that day worth the trouble. She said it could be something like making a favorite meal, calling a friend, watching a movie I've always wanted to watch, etc. She said the point was to do something pleasurable each day so at night I would think it was worth all the effort. That advice has really helped me through some awful days. It has also challenged me to find things that don't require a ton of time or planning or even leaving the house.

It's a good habit I hope to make permanent. It has reset my meaning inflation scale in a healthy way.