Does life have to be hard?

I was really considering creating an April fools post, however, I've seen people prank themselves more than I ever could. What a way to start a post. I know. Now let me explain myself before I get some hate mail. As I've been fortunate enough to have some more people join our close-knit community and sign up for the exclusive email group, I thought it might be time to rehash why this blog exists and what I am trying to achieve. Don't worry it does answer the question. 'Does life have to be hard?'

Why am I asking this?

Well, let's peel it back a bit. Here is a quick preface on the blog and its content. The main reason this entire blog exists is to get you the reader to a better place in your life. Both financially and often I will talk about certain experiences with things that could potentially benefit you the reader as well. As you may or may not know, we are currently on the financial independence journey. The long and short of this is that we are looking to have enough money invested so we can do what we want with our time.  Note I did not say do anything. I said what we want.

I sat and watched a very intriguing video the other day that really got me thinking. Does life have to be hard? The video covers how people oftentimes make life harder for themselves than it needs to be. I thought I was the only one who thought that. Well, I guess we look at scenarios and then we say, "Well I would have done that differently." No in this instance we are talking about someone who is choosing to have a difficult life by literally trying to work too much. People are essentially achieving the opposite of what they are trying to achieve by doing the thing they believe will get them there, aka hustle culture.

Now I can already hear the Gary V fans among us telling me to shut up and post 700 pieces of content. Hear me out. Greg McKeown makes mention of two paths and uses the example of his very sick daughter and how they choose the path of less stress, spending time together, being grateful for every day etc. VS being stressed, getting burned out and worrying for her entire journey. Spoiler alert she is now completely healed.

The video highlighted something that I have been believing for a number of years now. That is that a lot of people are choosing hard life.  

Why do people often choose a hard life?

The overall answer to this question would be that it is the default. What do I mean by that? Well, let's look at an average person. Jerry (Sorry if that is your name, it's not my fault your parents called you Jerry). Jerry grows up in a middle-class home where he sees mum and dad work very hard to pay their rent then their mortgage, then their three cars, then their second mortgage and more new cars, new jewellery, new phones, new *insert useless item that adds no real value to your life*

It is a well-known fact that people are often a product of their environment. As such Jerry is following very closely in his parent's footsteps. Jerry sees his parents work very hard. That is the key point. They are working harder and harder, and they keep going at this frenetic pace. They never stop to recover, let alone sit and consider why they are working this hard for the latest iPhone?

Understand my heart. I am by no stretch of the mind advocating for laziness and sloth. I am however advocating for the following things :

• A purposeful life
• A life you can do

A purposeful life is a very difficult thing and I believe it is quite personal. The other point is - A life you can do. I truly believe we live in such a rushed and hurried age that a lot of people around us are living lives they aren't able to keep up with.  

So then does life have to be hard?

In my opinion no. I have spent a tremendous amount of time researching the easiest way to invest. As it so happens the method I chose actually makes sense. I bring this up as I am trying to illustrate something. I speak to people often who are stressing about some new stock they bought, or some speculative investment that they believe may or may not pay off. All that stress and worry for what?

I see people going at 200kmph only to hit a wall and completely have a mental breakdown, a divorce, a heart attack not to name a few things. I'm sure if you took the time you could think of a few people like this? It might be you.

Why don't we look for an alternate path? A way that truly allows us to have the time to do life at a reasonable pace? I've been focused on getting my priorities in order for my own life. Making time for the people I love, making time for the things I love to do. There will always be something to keep you 'busy'. I believe it when you look past the business, that is when you start finding your purpose and you slow down enough to realise who you are!

I know this post is a bit different to what I usually post, however it has been heavy on my heart and I wanted to share some good news as it aligns quite well with the FIRE journey. It's vital that as much as your investment portfolio grows, you as a person grow alongside it. That's going to be a wrap.

As many of you would have seen, we are on Facebook now!

My only ask is that if you find any value in any of these posts that you share it with friends! Appreciate you. Until next time.

Best,

Mk.