Something I’ve been thinking about lately is the path that we’ve all been somewhat conditioned to take. And that is working really hard now so we can reap the rewards later.
If you don’t work really hard now, you risk not being able to enjoy life when “later” finally comes. Does that sound familiar to you? Well, it should, because that’s the exact path we took to become successful in our careers.
Work hard, study hard, grind, and the payout comes later. It makes absolute sense and has helped me get where I am today. However, I’ve really started to wonder whether it’s still the road I want to be on for the rest of my life.
I definitely plan to live a long time, but that’s not something I can necessarily control. Taking care of my body, eating right and exercising, I can control. I can also try to avoid taking crazy unnecessary risks. But again, when it’s my time, it’s my time.
So when it comes to the normal timeline “trading 30 for 30,” I’m assuming that’s a fair trade. But what if it’s “30 for 10” or “30 for 5”? What if I don’t even get to 30 years and I never make it out of the work hard phase and “later” actually never arrived.
The assumption is that’s the good life, and retirement is the best time to enjoy that. So it’s worth it to sacrifice time now for that moment in the future.