Most people only re-examine the path that their life is taking when they suffer a traumatic experience. Some people take a deep breath when they reach a point where they realize that their days are numbered. They sense the need to focus the remainder of their lives on doing something that provides a deeper satisfaction and allows them to spend more time with their family. For others, they realize that they don’t want to continue to work at a mind-numbing job or for an ungrateful boss.
There is more to life than just making money. Henry David Thoreau said, “Most men live lives of quiet desperation.” We long for something more fulfilling.
I advocate investing your time and psychic energy in fix-up houses (and in writing books, as I elaborate on in my other blog). You will find more meaning in life, grow as a person, and make money independently of your regular job.
Taking a new path toward earning money requires us “to give up what is familiar and secure,” as Marsha Sinetar says in her book Do What You Love and the Money Will Fol-low. Sinetar feels that working at the “right” job involves “doing our best at what we do best.” Sinetar suggests that we periodically take stock of our true life’s purpose by asking the following questions:
1. What do I want to have accomplished when I look back upon my life in old age?
2. What habits would I need to cultivate and what would I have to delete from my present life to live out my true purpose?
3. What activities would I do if I lived as if my purpose meant something to me?
See also:
Do the Opposite of Everyone Else
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Tags: do what you love and the money will follow, Fix em Up Rent em Out, fix up houses, investing in fixer uppers, Marsha Sinetar, Ralph Waldo Emerson
Terry,
I am at this examination point right now. I am keeping my day job so it’s not a matter of quitting or staying – It’s more a question of climbing the corporate ladder, management positions, etc or just staying in a comfortable position that allows me time to play with RE on this side.
I would like to do both, but one or the other is going to suffer…
Chuck,
I know that feeling too.
Even though I can fit in most of my real estate duties on weekends and evernings, sometimes worlds collide and both job and RE demand center stage.