Untapped Yeahs = Later Regrets?
Two days ago, I introduced a question I asked myself during the 2020 pandemic. Today I want to follow up on what I came up with in response to that question, what I did, and what I would change.
The question I asked myself was:
What 10 things will I regret NOT doing in the next 10–20 years?
At the time, I was fresh to FIRE. I had just wrapped up a very successful corporate career and was trying to figure out what to do with all this free time.
Spoiler alert: I am still trying to figure out how to best use this time freedom.
But here’s the rest of the story.
I will not cover all 10 items, but here are some of the things I came up with:
Getting our music out and making The Leavers a “real” entity.
Achieving and maintaining excellent health and fitness.
Continuing to grow my net worth versus spending it down.
Getting a place I love, or maybe two or three.
Taking many road trip adventures.
Finishing the PhD program I started before FIRE.
Here’s the recap of how it went.
Yes, I have done all of these things.
Have I done them all to the level I hoped for or envisioned?
No.
Why?
I think it comes down to four things:
A lack of clarity on my North Star. I think I have three or four.
A lack of precision on the objectives. I finished the PhD program only to discover I had gone after the wrong goal. It wasn’t the degree itself, but the lifestyle of a professor that first led me to the idea of getting a PhD.
Tackling too many side projects at once. I am fairly high-energy and disciplined, but I also suffer from overconfidence and biting-off-more-than-I-can-chew syndrome.
A lack of commitment. Writing and posting a blog article every day for a year is teaching me a lot about what I have been missing in this regard.
Yesterday, I watched a video by a guy talking about his North Star. I wish I could remember who he was and what the channel was called, but it was one of many “taste test” videos I was sampling for ideas and inspiration.
He is a digital nomad. He was living in Argentina at the time of this particular video. He shared how he structures his life so that he doesn’t overindulge or miss out on experiences.
His North Star is his online business. He devotes half of his day to making sure the three biggest levers for growing and sustaining that business are attended to each day.
He has two side projects. He spends three days per week on one of them and four days per week on the second.
This and his North Star focus take up about two-thirds of his waking hours.
It leaves him five to six hours each evening that he called “freedom.” This is when he gets out and enjoys the local offerings.
I liked the simplicity.
Is it the right daily schedule for me?
I am not sure, but it did inspire me to give it some more consideration, so I will let you know what I decide later.
Another video I watched was by a guy addressing the issue of being famous versus being a musician. He said people confuse these two things all the time. They say, “Well, if you can’t be famous, why do it?”
His answer?
He gave up pursuing music as a full-time career. He now has a day job.
He still considers himself a musician, but he only plays gigs one or two times per month.
It was an exercise in knowing himself and what he wanted.
He had tried the full-time, touring-in-a-van, playing-lots-of-gigs lifestyle, but found he wasn’t suited for it. He likes predictability, consistency, and waking up in his own bed most of the time.
And, he says, the business model is fundamentally broken. Bands get about the same amount for a nightly gig that they did back in the 1990s, and venues have little incentive to increase the pay.
Thus, he pays his bills and funds his life as a musician by working a day job.
I think this is a familiar story.
What does this have to do with Yeahs turning into regrets?
Both of these guys went for, and are still going for, their dream lifestyles. One is pursuing it the way he thought he would—the digital nomad lifestyle—and the other adjusted his North Star to a lifestyle that suited him better.
Would they have regrets if they had never attempted these things?
Probably.
Bottom line, my advice is to get clear on what you really want, be very clear on the outcome you hope for, focus on one thing (or one thing and two smaller side projects), and be all-in committed.
That’s where I am headed on the Highway to Yeah now.
Let’s see how it turns out.