Chapter 2 – Following the crowd
[Working Draft] Although this post is published it is a continuously evolving document – B, 3.22.18
Assessing how I’ve gotten here. 28 years old, 5 years work experience, Bachelors & MBA.
I’ve followed a fairly proven model of success that has likely been the de facto model for many the past century.
- Go to school. Get a degree.
- Get a job. Work hard.
- Get a referral. Get new job (Repeat 3x).
- Find your mate. Procreate
= Success & Happiness
This simplified life plan has been the one I’ve prescribed to, but having time to travel and think provides one opportunities to see things from outside the machine. It’s possible this is the ONLY success plan I’ve been exposed to (not likely, just not thinking hard enough).
If we were to guess how many people on earth follow this success path – 5%? 10%?
If say 10% of people do, then we are talking about 720 million people!!
So my question is this. Is that group of people, following this life plan, happier than all the rest?
One of my beliefs is that one’s quality of life is most important, sitting above even financial prosperity. Everyone wants to be rich, but not everyone strives to be happy.
Scenario – What if I could cut your salary in half and double your happiness?
What would that life look like to you? Now only go to work for 20 hours a week? Double the time available to spend on hobbies, with friends, heck even sitting in bed watching Netflix because it’s your time to use!
Maybe you could work 12 hours each Monday and Tuesday and then take a roadtrip 6 hours from home to see how life is in the ‘burbs.
Anything is possible, but maybe we haven’t been exposed enough to the idea of lifestyle design to even consider it for ourselves. Often it’s only celebrities who get to enjoy these luxuries.
So the question becomes: would more exposure to alternative lifestyles in turn lead more people to consider designing their own life? I don’t know.
I understand that not all professions provide this freedom in a framework. But many do, and many more will in the next decade. And for me, I am out here asking myself what an ideal life means to me. Can happiness be measured? And if so let’s identify how best to get there.
Additional questions to consider around lifestyle design –
What frameworks/systems exist for people to plan out their days/life?
What professions today don’t allow for this but in the future will?
Who are the experts in this field today? What do they do & how do they do it?
Internationally, how are travelers working remotely doing in 2 regards: Happiness, Work status