Why?

My Why

This is an incredibly busy few days coming up. I am preparing to take a two week vacation with my family starting this Saturday, and feel like everything is condensed. Yesterday we recorded not one but two podcast episodes. Each of the recordings required hours of preparation (one was for a book launch…so I kind of had to read the book). Now, I’m rushing to get a few last things done before I jump on a plane to take a quick trip to Texas to give a talk about Hospice and end of life discussions. I return on Friday, and then jump on a plane again with the whole family to Canada. Somewhere in there, I have to fit in 15 hours of meetings for work, write a few blog posts, and perfect my talk for CampFI Midwest. I know it sounds exhausting, but this is my why.

Because I don’t need the paycheck. I’ve already reached financial independence. I’m doing these things because I love them.

Public Speaking

Getting up in front of people and speaking horrifies me. It absolutely does. I know that if you have seen me give a talk, you don’t believe me. You see how I confidently stride up to the stage and unleash a thirty minute diatribe with no notes. Easy? Right?

Well not exactly. Public speaking takes relentless practice. I memorize my talks, and rehearse them for months in advance. I dissect each phrase and practice how to deliver it. Although I might get paid a handsome fee for the hour that I show up, each talk has hundreds of hours of work behind it.

So why bother? I don’t need the money. Why put myself through all the fear and hard work?

Because it lights me up. It is my why. When I am up on the stage and hundreds of eyes are drawn to me. When I feel the room breath rhythmically with my words and I can hear a pin drop. I am alive. I am challenged. My heart is pumping and my thoughts are racing.

The fear. The excitement. Hunger and triumph.

You don’t just role over and die when you become financially independent. Work, hopes, and dreams don’t end when you “early retire”. You don’t become a different person.

The Easy Path

Wouldn’t it just be better to take the easy path? To check out? I could find some beach somewhere or bury myself in video games. Maybe I could. But those are not my why.

I believe that there is something down deep inside that drives all of us. That we let ideas about making money get in the way of our true identity, purpose, and connections.

That throughout our lives, and especially in financial independence, we have to be brave enough to throw off the yoke of self doubt and truly determine what we really want.

Even if it is hard. Even if it is time consuming. And especially if it is so important that it is difficult, and scary, and blissfully out of reach. These are the things that we have to grab on to for dear life and never let go.

Stretching

Stretching. To perfect that speech. And stand in front of a crowd of hundreds, or thousands. Harnessing the shear terror, reach down no matter how hard, and deliver.

Every single day.

My why.