Totally feel you. I'm 29 and have this sense of urgency, that i am running out of time.
My main problem is financial freedom. Is not about the money, it's about the freedom to do whatever i want, whenever i want. Is not that i want to buy a Ferrari tomorrow, i think it's more related to ability to travel to places and enjoy every moment of my life instead of sitting in an office.
When i look around, i realize that i am actually doing pretty great compared to the friends around me. I have had the privilege to study or work in each continent of this planet, Antartica excluded. I travelled and experienced lots of different places during my twenties, which are arguably the best time do have these experiences.
On top of that I bootstrapped two different companies which are running and profitable (one in South Africa and one in Hong Kong), but not yet enough to pay for my living expenses. Both amazing experiences, but probably also adding to the psycological pressure of "not being there yet".
And YET, i am somehow still deeply unsatisfied. I feel that i am not free and still unsure of what my life will look like in the future. Still bound to a salary.
Over the last year i made some small and big changes to my lifestyle to keep things in check:
- stopped the digital nomad life and got a easy, well paid job in berlin. That gave me the financial security and peace of mind back.
- completely scrapped tens of tiny dead-ended side projects, which were only adding clutters to my mind and taking away preciuos time.
- slowly accepted that things happen when they are ready to be. I'm dumping this "launch fast, fail fast" mindset. Most of the time a project takes lots of years to become successful.
- Code less and talk more to people.
- forced a bit myself to enjoy the small moments in life, like having a beer with my old time non-business-savvy friends.
- stopped drastically reading noise-making magazines like Techcrunch. You just read about the million dollar exits, but not about the majority failed stories.
- stopped reading business books and switched over to novel (sci-fi in particular).
Overall, my well being has improved a lot since one year ago. However, I believe once you experience this lifestyle, it's hard to go back and settle for the old one.
For the future, I will try to be more patient and wait for things to fall in place. But overall life is not a destination but a journey. As long as you enjoy the entire trip, it's all good!
This really hits the nail on the head. My main driving force behind all of this is financial freedom - not in the sense of, as you put it, "buying a Ferrari tomorrow," but just being able to do what I want, when I want, without having to cater to other peoples needs to afford it. I find the idea that people work so fucking hard just to be able to afford to work really fucked up. At the same time, I have more than many people I know, and I earn much more than many people I no. However, I still don't have the freedom to just relax. We live in a backwards society where we live to work, work to live. No one is able to just live, unless you're content with living outdoors off the land (I'm not).
When i look around, i realize that i am actually doing pretty great compared to the friends around me. I have had the privilege to study or work in each continent of this planet, Antartica excluded. I travelled and experienced lots of different places during my twenties, which are arguably the best time do have these experiences. On top of that I bootstrapped two different companies which are running and profitable (one in South Africa and one in Hong Kong), but not yet enough to pay for my living expenses. Both amazing experiences, but probably also adding to the psycological pressure of "not being there yet".
And YET, i am somehow still deeply unsatisfied. I feel that i am not free and still unsure of what my life will look like in the future. Still bound to a salary.
Over the last year i made some small and big changes to my lifestyle to keep things in check: - stopped the digital nomad life and got a easy, well paid job in berlin. That gave me the financial security and peace of mind back. - completely scrapped tens of tiny dead-ended side projects, which were only adding clutters to my mind and taking away preciuos time. - slowly accepted that things happen when they are ready to be. I'm dumping this "launch fast, fail fast" mindset. Most of the time a project takes lots of years to become successful. - Code less and talk more to people. - forced a bit myself to enjoy the small moments in life, like having a beer with my old time non-business-savvy friends. - stopped drastically reading noise-making magazines like Techcrunch. You just read about the million dollar exits, but not about the majority failed stories. - stopped reading business books and switched over to novel (sci-fi in particular).
Overall, my well being has improved a lot since one year ago. However, I believe once you experience this lifestyle, it's hard to go back and settle for the old one.
For the future, I will try to be more patient and wait for things to fall in place. But overall life is not a destination but a journey. As long as you enjoy the entire trip, it's all good!