I recently read an article on Kiplinger that talked about the idea of living like you’re already retired… this really struck a chord with me.
Why waste 30-40 years of your life slaving away at a job you don’t really care about, just to maybeenjoy a few good years when you’re old and frail?
I probably sound like a broken record at this point, but life is short and it goes by quickly.
Last week, I mentioned the phrase 'Memento Mori'--meaning "remember you must die." This week, I'll give you the phrase 'Memento Vivere'--meaning "remember to live" (shout out to Tristin Cloward for introducing me to this beautiful phrase).
Let’s take a look at the mindset that’s been ingrained in us our whole lives: go to school, get a good job, work for 40 years, retire, and die. Existentially, that doesn’t sound like much fun. Statistically, most retirees have less than $100,000 in savings and have to drastically reduce their spending and lifestyle in order to stay afloat.
When you're 70 years old, you're not particularly in the best physical shape of your life. If you wanna go sky diving or paddle boarding or hike a mountain in a foreign country, you might wanna consider doing it sooner rather than later.
So by the time you reach retirement age, your chances of being either financially or physically out of shape are high. For most people, our promised ‘golden years’ rarely turn out to be very golden.
What if, instead of wasting decades of your life working, saving, and waiting for a lousy retirement, you just lived like you were retired now?
Don't let your job or work consume your whole life. There is no reason not to allocate more effort to the things that give you joy and less to the things that don’t. Use your work as a tool for income, but once you leave the office, you’re focused on things you really care about.
Most people will wake up with just enough time to make it to work, spend the whole day there, then drive home just to ‘unwind’ from the day and do it all again tomorrow. Instead, wake up early and work on a hobby. Write, read, draw, exercise, spend time on a passion project. Make your hobbies your identity. Stop putting your real passions on the backburner.
If you don't do it now, you never will. There will never be a perfect time to start something.
After work this week, plan on spending genuine time with your friends and family. Go to a park, go for a hike, be spontaneous. This weekend, donate your time to helping others in need, go on a vacation or a road trip, go experience something new.
Learn something by taking an online course or attending a college class; the amount of knowledge on YouTube alone is astounding. Just because you’re out of school doesn’t mean learning is over.
I just threw a lot of different things at you... and I don't want you to feel overwhelmed. I just want you to realize all the things you might be missing out on if you coast through life.
The important thing in all of this is to not let life pass you by. Take advantage of your precious time on earth.
Don’t wait until you’re 65 years old to try and experience life.
Memento Vivere.
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