Retirement is what you do from something you hate

No one retires from doing something they love.

I had three life goals when I graduated high school (mind you, I was 18). Goal #1 was to make $1,000,000. Goal #2 was to own a Ferrari. Goal #3 was to retire by age 35.

Looking back, these goals are silly. First and foremost, I had no concept of what “making $1,000,000" meant. Was that in a year? In my bank account? Business reveneue? Second, owning a Ferrari is insanely impractical for me. I’m 6'5" tall, so I would barely fit. And, I live in an area where the speed limit is 45mph everywhere with some neighborhoods at 19mph. Both of these goals were most definitely driven by watching too many episodes of MTV Cribs. Damn you MTV Cribs.

The third goal had one key assumption: I assumed I would be working at a shitty job and would want to get out of it as quickly as possible. Now having 15 years of experience working and half of those years working for myself, I have no need to retire (ever).

I realized that retirement was a thing people did from a job they didn’t enjoy. When was the last time you saw a successful entrepreneur, business owner, artist, etc, who retired because they simply enjoyed their work too much? “Sorry guys, it’s time to retire from the thing I’m passionate about and that brings myself and other people a lot of value.” You’d never hear those words.

Unfortunately we live in a society not focused on intention, love, and happiness, but focused on wealth, work, and a somewhat standard 9-5 operating system. While this system may work for some people, I’m trying to run away from it as quickly as possible.

I have to thank my friend Joshua Fields Millburn for helping me realign my values. His story and the simple phrase he constantly asks himself “Does this thing bring me value” has made a huge impact on my life. Instead of focusing on goals that society has deemed important, I’m focusing on new goals that I deem important.

If looking forward to retirement is a thing for you, I highly suggest realigning your life priorities. Your work. The people around you. Etc. I’m happy to work the rest of my life because the work I’m doing is something I truly enjoy.

If this article brought you value, I’d love for you to check out my brand new book Creativity For Sale. In it, I share my entrepreneurial journey of making over $1,000,000 as well as a complete realignment of my life.