Stop Postponing Yourself
Reject The Deferred Life Plan
Let me know if you've heard this before:
"I'm gonna lock in for X months/years and THEN I can do the thing I want to do."
This is a lie. We call it:
The Deferred Life Plan (D.L.P.) : Waiting for an undefined future date to finally pursue your 'dream' life outcome.
The D.L.P. is a flawed paradigm. Everyone knows that the 'perfect' time is not coming. And yet most still act as if the future is promised. They postpone themselves.
But why?
This mind virus lives deep in the western consciousness. You are psyoped from birth. And most discontent can trace back to this as the root cause.
The D.L.P. operates on the following false premises:
You aren't born/made to do work
You will want to stop working
Your 'career' is separate from your life
You should/need/will build a life you want to retire from
You need to 'earn' a living
The future is 'guaranteed' (in any sense of the word)
Money and freedom are equally valuable at any age
Let's explore why each of these is indeed a false premise.
& 2. “You aren't born/made to do work // You will want to stop working”
After the industrial revolution, our relationship to and understanding of 'work' was subverted.
For MOST of human history, we engaged in 'work' and craftsmanship because it is our nature. It was not a means to an end, but the end itself.
As The Manifesto states: “You are The Creator, and His Creation”. Being 'made in the image of God' means that, like God, we are here to create things: to use our hands to be His hands here on earth.
When we deny this fundamental truth we resist our daily lives.
Famously, people become lost and depressed after 'retiring' from their career. This is true from professional athletes to real estate brokers.
Modern psychology suggests that this 'depression' is a result of an 'unhealthy' relationship with work. They suggest that they have placed ‘too much' of themselves into the work.
It's the opposite.
Modern psychology perpetuates a self-obsessed, narcissistic paradigm where sitting on a couch talking about how you feel is considered 'virtuous healing'. Meanwhile, pouring your heart into a craft in the service of others is 'imbalanced' and 'unhealthy'.
Depression dissolves when you are serving others.
You don't need therapy, you need purpose and meaning. If you stop creating, you'll begin to die. It's our nature; and it separates us from the animals of the field. The modern 'work' environment has us acting and believing that we are beasts of burden.
We are not.
"My yoke is easy, and my burden is light"
“Your 'career' is separate from your life.”
If you spend over 70% of your waking hours doing something, it's most of your life.
You don't 'live to work' or 'work to live'. You are alive. And time is passing. Your ‘career’ is simply how you are spending most of your time. Your life is happening now.
If you prefer to spend the majority of your waking hours in a blue light cube trading 5 days for 2, be my guest. I can't get the math to add up.
“You should/need/will build a life you want to retire from”
The idea of living a life you need to retire from should scare you.
The scary thing is how common it has become.
People ask me how I have lived and worked from the most amazing places in the world. They often cite their current job as a reason they can't do the same.
Wouldn't it make more sense to decide first HOW you want to live, and then find the means that support it? Rather than getting a job and letting it set your daily routine? Rather than living in a city you don't like because the job is there? Rather than sacrificing your health, vitality, and spirit because you work long hours under blue light and don't have time for walks, sunlight, and training?
Nope? Too complicated?
Got it.
“You need to 'earn' a living”
This language spell was cast on you without your consent. You don't need to 'earn' a living from anyone. You are alive. God decided that. You need to earn money. But your life should't be what’s for sale.
“The future is guaranteed” (in any sense of the word)
Trying to backfill a lifetime worth of travel, adventure, and memories starting at age 60 is a fools gamble. I promise you that it won't play out how you hope.
Even if statistics place your life expectancy over seventy-five years old, tomorrow isn't promised for anyone. Some people make it to one-hundred, others don't escape their twenty’s. It's tragic, but it's the truth. So putting all your happiness and fulfillment eggs into the retirement basket is a bad move.
It's equivalent to filling a retirement account with most of your income, having no guarantee that you can withdraw later.
That's what you're doing with your life. And they tricked you with money.
“Money and freedom are equally valuable at any age”
Money is only as 'valuable' to you as the change it can create in your life. This means that money's value is directly tied to your ability to use it.
Remember as a kid when 5 bucks made you feel rich? It's partially because of inflation, but it's mostly because of what that money meant to YOU.
Give an eighteen-year-old ten grand and he can travel the world for a year. Give ten grand to a sixty-five year old with five prescription meds and a mortgage, and they might cover their living expenses. Not to mention their body couldn't handle the ten hour flights, the overnight buses, the motorbike adventures, the sunrise hikes, and all the walking in-between.
It's obviously a trade-off. But it's important to understand that a lower sum of money is far more valuable to you in the present than it will be after you start pulling out of the 401k at sixty.
Invest wisely.
Part II:
So The Deferred Life plan is a scam. And now you want out. Fortunately, there is another way.
Let me show you using finite vs infinite games:
In his 1986 book 'Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility’ Professor James P. Carse suggests that life separates into finite & infinite games.
Finite games are played to win and have fixed rules and boundaries. Infinite games, are played to continue playing and have no fixed rules or boundaries.
School is a finite game. Work is an infinite game.
Basketball is a finite game. Being healthy is an infinite game.
A job is a finite game. Entrepreneurship is an infinite game.
It's critical to not conflate these two, even unconsciously.
The goal of business is not to start one. It's to stay in business. The goal of training is not to get healthy. The goal is to stay vital for your entire life.
Knowing this, you want to orient your life towards infinite games. Play as few finite games as you can, and when absolutely necessary, restrict them to a finite timeline.
Ensure that your 'sacrifices' have defined boundaries i.e. “I will quit after six months, or after I have X amount saved”, “I will travel to Europe before the end of this year”, “I will lose ten pounds in ninety days”, etc.
An undefined boundary like: “one day” or “when I feel ready”, shackles you into familiar chains.
The golden handcuffs only get shinier and tighter with time. After a few promotions, some expensive possessions, a house, a girlfriend, or even few kids, things become far more complicated. You are still free, but responsibilities add layers of complexity.
If you enter into a sub-optimal job or living situation with an intentional exit strategy, you'll be fine. You are making a conscious trade-off. However, without intention, you are on the high speed railway to regret.
The key ingredient here is INTENTION.
Living unconsciously leaves you lost at sea and victim to the tides. Creating clear boundaries around your chosen compromises allows you to sail towards safe harbor.
Play infinite games, and postpone your life no further.
Bring intention to whatever stage you find yourself in right now, and prepare to burn the boats to take the island.
Thanks for reading, share if you feel called. Otherwise talk soon.
Be The Renaissance.