Why do I need a daily plan, I became financially independent so that I could do whatever I wanted every day? This is a great question. There was a time previously in my life when I was winding down a company and hadn’t committed to my next one yet. I found myself keeping erratic sleeping hours, procrastinating, eating meals at weird times, and I generally felt horrible. We may take for granted what our working life provided for us. It controlled our sleeping and meal times, mandated that we be active / productive, helped us feel successful, helped us enjoy weekends as a break from work, provided social interaction, and provided support and validation. Now keep in mind that all of this goes away when you venture outside the maze.
People may judge or be threatened by you for choosing something different. They may assume that you think you are better than them because of your situation. You may feel alone because no one else is doing this with you. You have no external stimuli that make you productive or drive you to achievement. But this is not to say that it isn’t still awesome.
As the Building New Habits Race Car Post describes, dedication + hard work and/or smarts = freedom. This is why structure is a good idea. One thing that I have learned from other successful FI people (yeah I am coming to realize that this is a thing) is that they usually start by traveling a lot and doing all kinds of random crazy stuff but over time they all migrate toward some structure, even if that structure is structured adventure.
So I have laid out an initial daily plan that I will test and rapidly iterate on in true lean startup style until I have a viable life that fulfills me. I did this by considering my Building New Habits Race Car as well as my bucket list. I asked myself which bucket list things would fit well in my life now (which currently includes a wife who still works 50-60 hr weeks and 2 kids in school). I also looked at what I know about myself:
-Excercise makes me feel good, I should fit this in at least 3 times a week. It is not just good for my physical health, but research suggests it is good for mental and emotional health.
-If I am not working during the day and all of my friends are, I may need social interaction and to be part of a community that accepts and appreciates me. Meyers Briggs says that I am a very extroverted introvert. I need interaction so I don’t become some weird character from a Charlie Kaufman movie.
-Knowledge of myself and my emotions is something that I want to work on. Maybe I should make meditation and journalling part of my plan. Journalling helps me see patterns of mood and performance that may not immediately jump out. Also, as much as 90% of top performers meditate often according to Tim Ferriss
-I like using my brain and thinking hard so I should fit in some learning and analysis stuff. What if it’s true that if you don’t use it you lose it?
Based on these considerations together with my bucket list and new habits race car here is my rough initial plan:
This plan is rough and needs some room for my planned adventures in the near term but I’ll see how it goes and maybe share an update of what this looks like a few months from now with some learning and much iterating under my belt.
