Lifestyle Design Means No More Dreaded Mondays
February 2, 2010 | Posted by Brad Chaffee 
Have you ever heard of lifestyle design? Too many people follow the path that someone else (parents) set out for them, or they choose their career path based on the wrong reasons (money).
If you are working in a cubicle all day because you chose your career based on money, you will likely hate your job. Likewise, if your parents pushed you into a career based on what they wanted you to do, you may find that you hate your job just the same.
What are the alternatives?
Well, for starters, you could figure out what your passion is. What do you LOVE doing? If you could choose any vocation you wanted to, what would it be? What would you love doing so much that it wouldn’t feel like work at all? That’s the key.
I love teaching people about debt freedom and personal finance, so naturally for me, becoming a financial counselor is the job I would love doing so much that it wouldn’t feel like work at all. So that’s what I have decided to do. I recently quit my job after realizing two years ago that I wanted to do something else.
I do not recommend quitting your job until you have put together a plan that will enable you to do so. It took me two years to make it to this point, so patience is needed to see this through.
Steps to take:
- Find your passion! What would you love doing everyday?
- Create a plan! How can you make it happen? Be realistic, but be sure to set some goals that are currently out of your reach.
- Become debt free! Believe it or not, ridding yourself of debt will make this journey much easier.
Stop waking up on Monday dreading your job. Do what you love instead, and find out why the word “retirement” is just a word that someone made up for people who hate their jobs.
Design your own lifestyle! Don’t be a slave to what you think you have to do.
Brad Chaffee is the Enemy of Debt, and a regular contributor here at the Self Reliance Exchange. Learn more about Brad by reading his bio. You may also contact him here.
Categories: employment | 
Tags: career planning, lifestyle design, self reliance | 
2 Comments »
Brad, my definition of retirement is doing what you want to do, when you feel like it, for whom, for how much you’re interested in making, and exactly where you’d like to do it. Here is a more detailed discussion of how I’ve defined retirement ever since I can remember http://www.frugal-living-freedom.com/definition-of-retirement.html
Clair
Yeah i know. For my dad, retirement is signing off from society and I just don’t want that for myself. Actually most people would probably say they want to retire and spend the rest of their days on a beach. When I retire I want to be doing EXACTLY what it is that I am doing today!