The Mad Dash To January 2nd
Welcome to the insanity my friends
If you've known me for more than five minutes, you know I'm not a fan of consumerism.
Year after year, I get a kick out of writing about how the holiday rush is a travesty and leaves us feeling more tired than ever.
The starting gun goes off this week: Halloween, then Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas, and New Year's. I like to call this the mad dash to January 2nd.
The funny thing is I'm an older millennial. We entered the workforce when the economy had crashed and unemployment was at record levels.
At the time there was a nationally syndicated show on CNN hosted by Clark Howard. In the pre-smartphone days, people actually watched long-form content on TV.
Clark was a quirky guy who talked about personal finance, and at the time, my credit wasn't that great, but I listened to countless hours of his show and started thinking about what I wanted my life to look like.
I started investing and got serious about living within my means. My wife, an early adopter of blogs, introduced me to Leo Babauta, who, though not a household name, essentially coined the term minimalism.
The minimalist movement, which peaked in the early 2010s, advocated for frugal living with a focus on close relationships and experiences over possessions. From my perspective, it evolved into the FIRE movement, which emphasizes investing more than living small.
Countless bloggers offered eBooks, and digital courses and started email lists which are now the bedrock of digital marketing.
I was working the graveyard shift at a small county hospital when I wrote in a journal that "I want multiple streams of income, I want to be blogging, working for myself and I don't want to be chained to a full-time job I hate."
It took longer than I thought, but guess what?
I achieved those goals!
Then I noticed something strange. I work a lot harder now than I ever did as an employee. I'm the face of my brand, the accountant, the video editor, the content creator, email marketing director....can you see where this is going?
But I love every second of it. You all have heard me write about core values for 5 years now, but I cannot overstate how incredible it feels to live a life that aligns with your values.
If you haven't read my Inner Compass eBook "Who Are You? you need to. You can get it right here.
Oh...and I want you to commit right now to putting your credit card away and saying no to the holiday hustle and bustle. Throw on a crock pot and chill with the people you love.
Tis the season to relax and reflect
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