Mikael Rieck is the author of more than hundred articles on topics of how to make money both online and offline. He has been online since 1999 and has always had a passion for money making opportunities and teaching others how to make a profit.You Need To Know WHY You Want To Retire Early
Some of you are reading the headline and might be saying to yourself that it can’t be that important to know why you want to retire rich and/or early as long as it happens.
I have to give you that if it was as easy as it sounds then I wouldn’t want to argue with you. Unfortunately it has been proven time and time again that nothing “just happens” and rarely does anything good come from very little effort.
This does however not translate into it being neither hard nor impossible to quit your job and retire in an early age, but if you have no idea why it is that you want that retirement in the first place then odds are that you will not get it.
Why the WHY Cannot Be Negative
As with most things we want in life, being able to say to your boss that you do not want to work there anymore because you’re now able to take care of yourself is a dream come true for thousands of people around the world.
Most will unfortunately never be able to live that dream but will keep working their nine to five jobs until the time for “normal” retirement kicks in. For very few of them it has not been a life where they worked on something that they enjoyed and for many they will not have that much to show for the many years of hard labor.
If we could ask all of them whether or not they would want to quit their job if they didn’t need the money, my guess is that probably around 90% or more would say yes.
However if we tried to dig a little deeper and ask them WHY they wanted to retire early my guess is that only a very small part of them would be able to come up with a compelling reason to actually do so.
Some would probably say that they hated their job, didn’t like their boss and co-workers or felt that they spent way too much time traveling to and from work.
Now these are all valuable reasons but they are NOT compelling. Would you want to spend every night plugging away on the keyboard building websites because you hated being stuck in a car or in public transportation for hours a day? My guess is “NO”…
Would you want to skip taking a vacation for a couple of years because you didn’t like your boss or your co-workers? I doubt it…
What I am trying to get at is that these “negative” reasons for wanting to retire early might be valid reasons but because they are not compelling to you they will not give you the drive that it takes to actually move on and push through when everything seems hard and you feel tired and burned out.
To Retire Early You Need a Positive Outlook
If knowing what it is that you don’t want to do and don’t want to have will not help you do what it takes to actually get to where you want to go, then what will?
It is simply the exact opposite namely that you will need a WHY that is positive enough and strong enough for you to endure the troubles and problems that lies ahead.
What drives a human being can be very different in nature and there is no right or wrong answers to the question.
Finding it will probably not be an easy task either or at least it hasn’t been for me. In the next post I am going to share my story with you so that you can see what drives and motivates me to keep building my business no matter what is thrown at me.
To give you some examples of what is driving other people to do what it takes, then one of the most common WHYs are that they want to spend more time with their kids while they are growing up. For many people today the time they have with their children are extremely scarce and if you are a parent yourself you know how that feeling can hurt inside. You probably also know that the smile from one of your children can melt your heart in a second and those two keys can be a driving force to doing whatever it takes to not have those hurts and get more of those smiles.
For some people wanting to retire early comes from wanting to do something that will make them feel like they are making a difference for something they believe in and value. It can be humanitarian work of some sort or it can be to help protect the environment. Being stuck at a corporate office or in some kind of warehouse will not fulfill that dream and because of this they strive to live that life of their passion.
Conclusion
You might not have kids and you might not want to do good things for the environment and that is okay. We’re all different and have different WHYs that drives us.
What IS important is that you spend time (preferably in a quite private place) thinking and feeling what it is that makes you tick. What is it that will have chills running down your spine when you think of it? You will need to find something that is as strong a motivating factor as you might imagine it is for a parent to want to spend time with his or her kids.
To retire early and have loads of money might sound good but I have yet to find someone where that thought made anything run down their spine. It can be a good starting point but you will need to dig deeper and do some serious soul searching.
It has taking me not weeks or months to figure it out but years! So if you sit quietly for 30 minutes and can’t get deep enough to find that WHY don’t worry about it. It might take some time to find it but it will be worth it because when you have it you know that you will be successful in quitting your job and retire early to go do the things that you are burning inside to do.
To Your Success,
Mikael
P.S. If you have already found your WHY I would like to encourage you to share it with the rest of us in the comments below. Everyone can benefit from each other’s stories so please do not hold back.
4 Responses so far
Nicolas Prudhon@SEO Help
June 19th, 2009
12:47 am
Hi Mikael,
Great and very inspirational post there!
Personally I’m lucky enough to have been able to successfully retire rich early, that is since last year before my 31st birthday.
Yes it’s great, and no it wasn’t easy at all. The truth is that during all those years I’ve been working or my success, my “WHY” or “GOALS” have evolved and changed a lot.
I started my path and career out of anger and desire to prove something to people who didn’t care, then greed took place and money was never enough, I really used to think that money would be the answer to everything until I got proven very wrong, learning from my mistakes, I became wiser and made even more drastic changes to my life.
Today, I’m living the best “WHY” for me, and that’s living a happy trouble free life. I finally live with the person I wanted a simple quiet life, where maybe less money is involved, but much more happiness is surrounding.
Maintaining my blog has become my favorite hobby and allows me to live both a life of happiness and meaning.
.-= Nicolas Prudhon@SEO Help´s last blog ..Day 17: 21DSM – On-Page Analysis With IBP =-.
Mikael
June 19th, 2009
10:21 am
Hi Nicolas, thank you very much for sharing. I am sure that there are many people that start out doing it for “the money” and I must admit that I’ve been there also. But as you say there will come a point where you’ll realize that it is not “the money” that does it.
I’m not saying that money is not part of it because without them most dreams will never become reality but is more the things/freedom/security/whatever that money can give you that is the true key to it all.
Ion Doaga
July 15th, 2009
2:42 am
Hi Mikael,
My WHY is that I want prove firstly to myself that I can do better, and secondly open people eyes on it saying: “hey guys! Look, it works”:) Because, as I am starting to find out and try making money online, most of my friends are saying that this is not serious and I should find a better job where I will earn real money.
The other WHY I have at the moment, is security and financial independence for me and my family. I’m not married:) saying family I mean my mother who has difficulties with her job and my sister. Even if I wasn’t supported by them in the first days. But day by day, they start to believe in me. And that definitely helps me.
These are some of my WHYs I shared with you here.
Thanks,
Ion
George Kimball
August 25th, 2011
9:08 pm
Thank you for the inspiration. I have to say that my “Why” came from years of frustration at work and being tired of hearing myself complain. I used my vacations to explore different careers and avenues for life. I found that I enjoyed teaching kids in Japan. I tried teaching English to several classes and age groups and came away from the experience feeling fulfilled. I decided to finish my degree and quit my job of 20 years. I saved my wages and made some smart investments along the way. I paid off my house and bought a house in Japan. I’m opening a small school in November. I won’t have to work for anyone except for my wife, students, and myself. I think it’s important to find what you want to do in life. I worked in a completely different field for 20 years before I found that education was my calling. Take the time to figure out what is most important to you. Don’t limit yourself to what is easy. Challenge yourself and look beyond the box. The clock is ticking and you’re not getting any younger. Make a plan and stick to it. Listen to people that are positive and optimistic. You’ll find that those people are the happiest in life and that they can influence you to be the same. Living within your means and knowing yourself can be the key to a successful life. The “rich” I measure is in happiness because in the end you can’t take the money with you, only the experiences. Why not make those memories positive and filled with thing you have done instead of things you wished you could have done, but were too afraid to do anything about it? It’s hard work to make your dreams come true. Many people will think you are crazy. That’s why so many people give up. You have to really want it and you have to know what you really want. You’ll know when you have found it because it will be all that you talk and think about. You’ll be able to clearly picture yourself doing whatever it is and you’ll find yourself smiling more often. Grab a hold of life and live it to it’s fullest, because you only have one chance. Don’t waste it!
Thanks and good luck to all of you,
George
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