Lost and Found

Contrary to the title of this blog, sometimes those who are wandering ARE lost. Back when I was keeping up on this blog, I had things to say, anecdotes to share, photos to upload. Life back then was interesting (at least in my mind it was!) I can’t say as my meandering through life had any real destination but I was actively collecting experiences and squirreling away little skills and tidbits of information with the notion that someday, one day, at some point all the pieces would fall into place. And I was content with that. I was OK. I was young. Time was on my side.

But then a funny thing happened: contentment became complacency. Youth became middle-age. OK became ho-hum. An interesting toodle along the path of life started to feel more like an undefined journey with no clear ending and kinda pointless. Unfocused. Boring. Soul-crushingly bland. And the clock started ticking.

I coasted along in a state of torpor for a number of years. Occasionally a fleeting little voice would some times whisper from somewhere just out of sight and ask, "Is this all there is?" But in the flurry of deadlines, bill payments, resumes and hurriedly running from one obligation to the next, it was usually told to wait just a bit longer, now was just not a good time for that.

And so the blog languished. Truth be known, I did not feel like I had anything interesting to say or share. My Facebook wall is a steady stream of quick updates and adorable pictures of my critters and meme's and whinging about this or that or the weather. Nothing of substance really. Nothing terribly thought-provoking. Nothing controversial. Nothing worthy of the effort it would take to fire up blogger and type it out. From time to time I tried to scrape together a thought or two to post on here but alas, my desire to write anything at all faded away and along with it, my poor neglected blog. And besides, the process of recovering my password took more brain power than I had.

So I bumbled along just living. And surfing. Mindlessly. I spent a lot of time on Facebook and YouTube and food porn and news and any website that happened to catch my attention du jour. I told myself I was doing research and that it was all useful information that I might be glad I read up on one day. It was a bad habit -- both the surfing and the tendency to zone out when there was something that I really did not want to face. It was a way to hide.. What was I hiding from? There are probably a number of things lurking just under the surface, I am aware of some and others are more illusive.

On one of my mindless surfing expeditions, I randomly came across a video on YouTube by a man who retired at the age of 36 and has been sailing the world for the last 20 years. Whaaaa…? You can DO that? Just quit your job and still have a fun life? He calls it the Economy of Enough.

Frugality. Who knew?! (probably a lot of people … but that's not really a word that's been in my vocabulary until now!)

What he is talking about is the concept of F.I.R.E. -- Financial Independence Retire Early. Except he did this before F.I.R.E. was a thing and he's not some young kid shouting and gesticulating about how EASY it is to get rich quick!!! (some of the FIRE/get rich content out there is … umm, well, hokey.) This is just a regular guy telling you about the choices he made and how he lives his life now. Basic, down to earth advice. Take it or leave it, you decide. Its a big deal but its achievable.

The Economy of enough boils down to two things:

Number 1: Understand your goals.

Come up with a plan and stick.with.the.plan. Decide what makes you happy. Choose something that's actually achievable, something that excites you. Choose wisely, you only get to make this choice once.

Number 2: Commit to making daily choices that will let you get to your goal.

Little everyday choices can make a huge difference. Do things different than everyone else, you have a different goal. Live an intentional life. Live on your own terms. Live lighter on the world.

At one point he says, "I want to encourage you, regardless of your age, to live your best life." That really does sum up the whole point of his video and encapsulates the essence of his message.

After watching his video a number of times it became apparent that what might be missing in my life was focus and independence. Living a good life was always on my bucket list, my vision board for "someday", but there was never a real goal or plan. And I don't have the best track record of sticking to my plans even when I did have one! And I definitely did not have the courage to stray off beaten path; I am a 'colour inside the lines' kind of person. But I have a new vision of what's possible with a few changes in how I live and a different goal in mind.  The pieces are falling into place.  I may still be wandering but I've found a roadmap. I just need to find my version of 'enough' to know where that road is going to lead.

I don't feel quite so lost anymore.

And the strangest thing is happening: I now have something to say. Something to share.  And with that, the joy of writing is making a come-back and in this newly minted frugal lifestyle, writing costs nothing!

Update:

I am super stoked that he is doing a series of follow-up videos: