I realised that is not true at all. I just had this discussion with a friend. She needed to work. She felt insecure without working. Like life had no meaning. I could not understand this. My immediate response was. There is so much to do. Why would you choose to continue to work when you have enough money?
As I questioned further, I learnt more about her personality. She was not an explorer, loved routine. Without work, there was really nothing to do. Some people are just like that. If I had no work, I'd go jogging, cycling, play games, read internet, etc etc etc, I could think of so many things to do and build a new routine to my life without working. However, I've come to acknowledge that each person is different. Some folks just do not like to try new things. They don't want to go jogging, cycling, wander around, etc. It's just them... and there's entirely nothing wrong with it.
After analysing this, I reflected more upon it. There's so many different people out there wanting different things. It's not in anyone's position to tell anyone what's right or what is wrong. If that decision helps the person sleep better at night, then they should go ahead and do it. If it makes him/her happier in the day, and it's not criminal, then why not. If she stopped working, which she already tried, she would feel financially stressed, although she already has a lot of money. She would feel that her life was meaningless, as she was brought up in the generation where people were expected and required to work. Work gave her a purpose and something to wake up to. Even though it could be stressful at times, overall, work did more for her than just money.
I just had to accept that some people just did not want what I wanted. Also, these people really would go senile if they did not do any work. As they did not like to imagine, be creative, try other things. They just enjoyed waking up, wearing clothes and going straight to work without thinking of what to do. They would not know of WHAT to do any other way.
It's really interesting once I understood all these. Suddenly, so many things clicked into place. Not only for retirement or work, but hobbies, travelling, things people do, their irritating quirks, etc etc. Everyone is just different and we are made to be like that. Each of us was brought up differently and we should not expect others to be like ourselves. So I've decided not to be too expressive of my retirement plans. Some people just aren't able to accept such an idea. Also, I do not want to waste the energy to explain all these to them. Explaining why it's possible, why I want to do it, why I won't be bored, etc etc. There's really no meaning for all these discussions.
Of course there might be some people who are willing to accept such an idea. I'll leave my blog to do the talking. I find that probability wise, there's a higher chance that someone is not willing to listen as compared to people who are willing to listen. Thus, I've decided that I won't be speaking about early retirement vocally but rather just continue to type and let people who want to learn more, maybe do a search online and find me. Talking about it with friends, family, colleagues is really just too tiring to explain over and over again.
Furthermore, why should I irritate them by talking about these when I know they are not receptive. We'll both irritate each other. As we both would not be able to understand each other's position. We'll I think I now understand them better now already. But I think they'll continue not understanding me and they probably won't even bother to see things from this perspective.
Today's a short post. Work has been really rough. But it was really nice talking to that particular friend about this. As due to it, I finally understood what she was talking about. That everyone was different and wanted different things. I realised I should tell her to work and continue to do so as it gave her confidence and happiness and I should also be happy for her. That enlightenment really helped me this week.
To end, you can talk about retiring early. But if the person is not receptive, don't bother wasting your time explaining everything to him/her or justifying yourself. They'll get it if they want to get it eventually. If they don't get it, probably, they don't want to get it anyway.
Thank you!
<<PREVIOUS POST // NEXT POST>>