How to Change Your Life

Changing your life is simple. All just need sufficient Dissatisfaction, a compelling enough Vision, and a good enough Plan, to overcome the Cost of Change.[1] In equation form, DVP>C.

If your life isn’t changing the way you’d like it to, think through which components of this equation needs work. It’s an easy exercise to sketch out:

Dissatisfaction:

• Lack of autonomy;

• a First-World average ecological footprint;

• fragility/exposure to risk;

• uncertainty about the efficacy of my Work;

• stress;

• workaholism;

• lack of quality time with friends and family;

• a widening chasm between my idealized sense of who I am and the real-world evidence of who I actually appear to be becoming;

• the sense that my one precious life is slipping through my fingers one thumb swipe at a time.

Vision:

• Lots of free time;

• money occupies a very small fragment of my attention;

• interesting adventures;

• a significant amount of time spend in craft;

• a household equipped with high quality analog goods that focus and channel creative energies;

• resilience to world system shocks and local disasters;

• a strong and healthy body;

• 1-3 evenings/wk spent in deep quality time with friends and family - a consistent and robust social life;

• the sense that my actions are no longer part of the problem;

• the sense that my actions are part of a solution.

Plan:

• Spend the time necessary to develop strong “Foundational” life skills;

• lay in reasonable preps to buffer short-term system shocks;

• minimize all forms of waste and eliminate counter-productive actions;

• learn at least an intermediate level of personal finance;

• pursue skills and activities of interest that have potential value for others that are also likely to throw off incidental income;

• steadily drive cost of living expenses down until $5k/yr is habituated and requires no special effort;

• experiment with radically decreasing my exposure to digital tools.

The Cost of Change:

• Effort;

• the perceived sacrifice of curtailing consumer activities like long road trips in cars, eating out often, extreme mountain biking, and frequent flights;

• no longer giving in to instant material gratification;

• navigating relationships with a wide difference in lifestyle;

• the nagging doubt that I could be wrong about all this.

[1]Early Retirement Extreme, Jacob Lund Fisker