Essentially, it's what we call, define the problem...
“If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it,” Albert Einstein said.
I've bouts of insecurity. It's normal. I've come to accept it as part and parcel of this way of life. I cope with it by mental re-programming. Looking at things from different perspectives. Rationalizing it from other points of views. But every once in a while, the old way of thinking comes back. It's not so easy to re-program conditioning which has been there since young.
Over the weekend, I felt it again. What if I miscalculated? What if I run out of money? All my friends are having great careers, I'm pretty much left with no career, if I go back I'm definitely behind my peers and there's no chance in catching up. Should I go back to work? More money is always better right?
That's when I stopped... More money is always better?
Is that always true?
My conditioning from office took over. Define the problem. What is the problem?
The question I asked myself...
Is this a money problem? Do we have financial issues?
The answer was a simple... no...
So why was I thinking of using a financial solution to fix a problem which was not financial?
We have enough money to spend. We have enough money to save.
Even if I miscalculated, my wife would be working til quite old.
She just admitted that she feels sad on Fridays cos the week is over. Gosh...
Not that I would want to live off her, but rather, I could have some form of security that any miscalculation would be mitigated by her working for a longer period.
If I go back to full time work, would that create another problem instead?
For example, there is no problem with our lifestyle now, we are happy with the current routine. But I am insecure. Due to my insecurity, if I go back to full time work, our current schedule would change. I would not be sending my wife to work and picking her up from work, she would either have to take taxi to and from work or learn how to drive. She starts work earlier than normal and comes home earlier as well. She would then come home earlier than me and have to do the chores, then I would come home, she doesn't really cook, so maybe we wouldn't eat together. We would likely have to do other chores on weekends and we wouldn't just freely enjoy ourselves like what we currently do.
So due to my insecurity, we end up breaking our current routine, which we are very happy with, to end up in a worse overall situation, but yes, I fix my insecurity over finances. But is that smart?
Using my old way of problem solving picked up from working, this is definitely not the right way. We aren't supposed to create a bigger problem to fix a smaller issue. We're supposed to fix the correct issue the correct way.
So what IS my problem?
I am insecure with some of my finances and career goals. The future is long. The longer it is, the more errors I may make. That's why it's safer to retire at 70 years old as compared to 35 years old. I have 35 years more time to make mistakes. I would like to build a light career to contribute a service to society.
This can be solved by many other decisions, but going back to full time corporate work doesn't really solve it appropriately. I'm not going into the solution, it's not the intent of my post.
Rather, I would like to ask you...
What is YOUR problem? Have you defined your issues?
Many times, we take the solution which is most obvious to us without really thinking of what the problem is. I would think that there are a lot of people are not entirely satisfied with their lives. It could be their job, it could be personal insecurity over how their friends/peers think of them, or what they want to achieve in life, amongst other things.
More often than not, their solution (or our solution) is to earn more money. To buy more things, bigger house, bigger car, etc. It's a very easy solution cos it's quantifiable, more is always better right, how can anyone be unhappy with more? And yet, is that the RIGHT solution? For many people, it usually isn't.
If someone is dissatisfied with their job, maybe it is a problem with the industry, maybe they are just not suited to be doing that job, by just jumping from company to company doing the same job at higher pay, will continue to keep this person dissatisfied. So maybe the solution could be to do a career change.
Or if someone is concerned with what people think of them, even if they earn more, buy a bigger house, car, etc, they will forever feel insecure, cos there's always someone richer to compare against. The insecurity is in their own minds. Maybe they need to change their friends? Or change their own mentality? But others may think this could be a good thing cos it drives people to work harder, oh well, but to each their own...
You see, it's really so easy to just take the most obvious solution. Just get better pay, upgrade your life, buy a nicer watch, bag, car, it's so easy to be happier, and it's true. Most of the time, we are happier when taking this route, but the happiness is fleeting. It doesn't last. Cos it isn't the right solution, after the wave of happiness is over, life goes on and they realize that they are back to the same situation and nothing has changed.
And of course to add on, like in my previous post, no one really wants to retire early, is early retirement really the solution? Sometimes it is, sometimes it is not. Usually, it is the financial freedom, that gives us the confidence to search for better solutions to our problems, but early retirement might not really be the final solution.
Have you properly defined your problem? Do you know what your real concerns are? Hopefully, today's post will spur you to ponder a little more about what your real concerns are, and what the real solution to your issues are.
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