I'm designing a life I don't want to retire from.
/If you follow my @kaizen_ashley Instagram page, you know already know how much I talk about quitting my job and never working again. I actually used to do a lot of complaining about working. Not because I don’t like my job, but because I didn’t like the lack of freedom. Well, I eventually got tired of hearing myself complain, and decided it was finally time to take action.
In May, I enrolled in @thefioneers Design a Life You Love program and I am so happy I made that decision. It’s a 4 month program and we are only about halfway through, but I am learning so much about myself. I’m already on the #FIRE journey with my husband and have been saving and investing a large chunk of my income for a few years now. The original goal was to continue to do that for the next 12 years so we could retire by age 45, but what we’ve realized as we’ve progressed on this journey is that we don’t want to delay fulfillment until retirement. I’m at a place where I want to feel fulfilled at every point in my life, so I’ve embarked on a journey to discover what that means for me while also exploring different options to continue to increase my income.
The program uses lifestyle design tools to guides us through different exercises to identify our core skills, characteristics and values to design a life we don’t want to retire from.
What I’ve learned so far is:
I don’t want to wait until age 45 to quit my full-time job
I value seasonality in my life (sometimes I enjoy a faster pace and some months I’d prefer slower living)
I enjoy developing systems and using automation to make my life and my business more efficient
Uninterrupted quality time is very important to me
I’m super engaged when I’m talking about the enneagram
I desire a life of freedom and ease
I’m motivated to become to best version of myself in every facet
I need autonomy of my time
I despise anything that doesn’t add value
Most of my peak experiences in life focus on ending a journey and starting something new and fresh
This list could go on and on, but I’ll stop there for now. This experience has been super eye-opening and I’m excited to continue to learn more about myself and tap into what really sparks joy for me ✨