| Does your big goal in life never even make it onto | | | | Pay for children's education. |
| your to-do list? That happens to me occasionally and | | | | Pay for holidays? |
| when it does I am reminded of what the ex-Beatles | | | | Pay for Cable TV? |
| star, the late John Lennon, reportedly once said: | | | | Pay for "stuff" ?? |
| "Life is what happens when you're busy making other | | | | You get my point? |
| plans." | | | | We all need food, water and shelter to get through |
| So, even rock superstars who on the face of it | | | | the days in a comfortable manner. And the fortune |
| might seem to have all the time and money in the | | | | and privilege to be able to live in a peaceful and free |
| world can get caught up in "stuff". That's kinda | | | | society where there are ample opportunities for |
| reassuring in a way for the rest of us. | | | | education and advancement. |
| The saving grace here can be an awareness of what | | | | Beyond that, what are necessities and what are |
| these plans actually are. For example, have you ever | | | | luxuries? |
| sat down for an hour or so each month and listed | | | | When I decided in my early 40s that I had spent |
| out all of the roles, activities and requirements you | | | | enough time in the corporate honey pot, I looked |
| are somehow fulfilling week in and week out. It can | | | | carefully at all of these things. Yes, I enjoyed being |
| be quite a shock to realize how much of the 168 | | | | able to afford going to good restaurants and take |
| weekly hours we each have is subsumed in "stuff". | | | | holidays in Hawaii etc. |
| Now this "stuff" is not necessarily to be trivialized and | | | | But once my BIG goal in life was wrapped around the |
| discarded. There are likely to be many important and | | | | rallying vision of being "independent", it became a lot |
| urgent tasks that you feel must be done each and | | | | easier to focus on being excellent in my existing |
| every day: | | | | career until the necessary savings were in place to |
| Earn a wage. | | | | make a safer exit approximately 5 years later. |
| Feed the family. | | | | And your big goal in life is what? |
| Pay for somewhere to live. | | | | |