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I liked this piece. It is well written and the author has good self awareness which is helping them in their journey. I also see in it a common question which

I liked this piece. It is well written and the author has good self awareness which is helping them in their journey. I also see in it a common question which the author hints at but doesn't seem to land on, "What is my purpose?" I get emails from people sometimes who write "I want to be rich! Tell me how to do that." and I always ask them "Why do you want to be rich?" It is however also the question the FIRE folks should also be asking. Here is a clue, no amount of money will make you happy or satisfied with your life, if your life has no purpose. And that purpose has to come from inside of you, not from some external source. Having kids may align your brain with the 'purpose' of raising and launching those kids into the world. But folks who retire "early" (what is early) and have no purpose find retired life fun for a couple of years and then it loses a lot of its luster. They need a 'job' which gives them purpose. And the longer you live the more you realize there is no "win" square at the end of your life, your life just stops. While that can be depressing, it can also be liberating. Consider how you can fix one small problem, provide durable support for one person or group of people who need support, and you start to realize that even after you are dead they will still be supported, and the problem will still be fixed. That is "winning." I didn't realize any of this until I had kids. I mean up to that point my path was "learn all the things, get rich, and retire to a life of leisure." But I did have kids, and I found I got much more satisfaction out of the path of "Help launch these new people into the world so that their impact is positive and your own contribution to the world lives on." Many writers have written, "We live on through the lives and deeds of our children." and I found that much more profound once I had children. In my professional life I found I get the same sense of accomplishment when I help someone move to their next phase, when I was presiding over the robotics club it was great to help new members build their first robot and to see where they took it. Doing those things doesn't require being "rich" or being "famous." It just requires me to take time to help on things when I can with advice and guidance. I found it was the difference between "having a purpose" and my earlier goal of "get rich and retire."

ChuckMcM 6y ago
A couple of people pointed out to me that the author had already said they felt their purpose was to be a writer, and they have taken classes on writing. I spent some of my time while walking thinking about those comments and came up with the following thought; The author made those statements in a nearly 10,000 word blog post. So in many ways they are already a writer. The difference I was trying to communicate is that a "purpose" in this case, which involve writing, might be "I want to share important stories that are impactful in people's lives." or "I want to entertain people with stories of fantastic worlds." or "I want to help people understand complex subjects without having to wade through tons of irrelevant things." Those kinds of statements are purposes that are achieved through writing. For me, the litmus test for whether something is a "purpose" or simply a "skill" is that a "purpose" generates tasks in service to that purpose. Skill building improves your ability to execute on those tasks. I know, kinda meta.

ChuckMcM 6y ago

A couple of people pointed out to me that the author had already said they felt their purpose was to be a writer, and they have taken classes on writing. I spent some of my time while walking thinking about those comments and came up with the following thought; The author made those statements in a nearly 10,000 word blog post. So in many ways they are already a writer. The difference I was trying to communicate is that a "purpose" in this case, which involve writing, might be "I want to share important stories that are impactful in people's lives." or "I want to entertain people with stories of fantastic worlds." or "I want to help people understand complex subjects without having to wade through tons of irrelevant things." Those kinds of statements are purposes that are achieved through writing. For me, the litmus test for whether something is a "purpose" or simply a "skill" is that a "purpose" generates tasks in service to that purpose. Skill building improves your ability to execute on those tasks. I know, kinda meta.