We can plan, plan, plan and say that we’re never going to do something or say “that’s never going to happen.” Then it happens. The future is unpredictable no matter how often we plan and I’d say more often than not, the more we plan something the more likely it’s not going to happen our way. (Probably because we planned so much that any little thing that goes wrong we notice). Maybe it’s better to live with fewer expectations. I’d argue that I’m usually happier when I don’t have expectations. That’s neither here nor there however. I’m just starting to go on a rant, but I do want to write about planning and my future for a bit.
I plan things a lot. Like, when I say a lot, I mean it. At home, at work, in the car. Everything I can think about. I’m probably living more in the future than in the present. (Most likely a problem, but we’ll tackle that another time). The future is important to me and I’m sure it is to you as well. We always want things to go well. To make more money, be happier, learn something new, travel to a foreign destination. Always in the pursuit of more instead of focusing on what we have and continuing in a never ending game of reaching for our goals and dreams, finally grabbing them and after awhile getting bored and trying to think up new things to go after. Heck, a lot of the time I’m working on grabbing two or three goals and when I do achieve them I’m right onto the next ones and don’t even give myself time to appreciate what I’ve accomplished or the people that have helped me accomplish it in the first place. Sad, sad, sad, I think. So I need to make a serious conscious effort to work on that.
So first, if you’re reading this and have helped me in any way possible, thank you! I truly do appreciate your help. And a sincere thank you to every single reader as well! It means a ton to me that you take time out of your day to read what I have to say!
I am on a pursuit to achieve awesome things in my life though and to design a life that I believe in is the best for myself. Where I get to live, how I want to live, and do the things that I’d like to do. Being only 24 though, I don’t have that luxury at the moment. That’s where the planning comes in.
You have to have some sort of plan to keep moving forward. Without plans for the future what do we have to live for? We just waste away during the short time that we have here on this planet. Which, by the way, I read what I found to be an extremely interesting article about our time living which you can read as well by clicking here. It’s by Tim Urban, author of the blog, Wait but Why.
I have just a year and a half left on active duty in the Air Force, so I’m starting to plan and figure out what I’d like to do afterwards. Some of the thoughts that I’ve been running around lately are:
- I want to do something totally different (job wise)
- I want to go to college (I have the GI Bill, so why not? It’d be a free education)
- I want to move to an entirely new place (as much as I love Augusta, I’d like a fresh start and I don’t enjoy living in the same place for too long. Even though I move to a different house every year.)
- I can join the National Guard or Reserves to help supplement my income and continue to have access to benefits such as health insurance, that I would lose were I to get out, then end up paying out the wazoo for.
- What if I just stayed in Augusta, got a job as a contractor doing the same work I do now and join the National Guard and pocket even more money, therefore giving me a greater opportunity to purchase more property and become even closer to gaining financial freedom and living the life that I want to live?
That last one sounds pretty good, right? I just had that thought last night, but here’s the issue. I don’t particularly enjoy what I do.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad gig and I’m grateful for the real experience it’s given me. I just find it extremely boring most days and a lot of information goes right over my head. Unfortunately, I can’t go into a depth of detail about what I do, but I’d like to do something else. However, I know that if I stick with it, then financially it’s going to put me in a much better place much faster then were I just to up and move to a new area and go to college. The one great thing though is the people I work with currently (so much better than the last area I worked in). Plus there’s a lot more opportunities starting to come about. For example, I’m being sent to Hawaii for two weeks in January. I’ll take it 😉
But there’s something holding me back and it hit me last night. It’s the future. The future me. The old me that looks back and tries to figure out if I made the right decisions. I guess by that time it won’t really matter, but a book by Karl Pillemer titled 30 Lessons for Living: Tried and True advice from the Wisest Americans it’s stated that the number one piece of advice that was mentioned was: Do not stay in a job that you dislike.
Maybe I’m taking that thought a little further than I should though. I mean that advice is probably for the folks who are complacent and content with what they have. They work their 9 to 5 and although they’d like to do something else that they truly enjoy they know that their current job means security. That’s the most important thing to them, security. Even if it means living a life that not true to what they actually believe in or not going after their goals.
I guess for myself, I know that I’m not going to stay in the same job for the rest of my life. That to me sounds absolutely crazy, but if staying in the same job for another one or two years along with the one and a half years that I have left currently have in order to make a lot more money and propel myself even further towards reaching my goals, then maybe it just might be worth it.
I’ll keep you all up to date with how things turn out, but as of now idea of joining the Guard and becoming a contractor sounds like the best option at the moment for where I want to go in life.
Thanks everybody!