Wood’s World

There are a handful of key points during your life where the decisions you make can lead you down one of many different paths. Having recently graduated from university I’m at one of those points. I’m facing the realisation that the path I choose now could shape the rest of my life.

How do you make decisions like that? You can attempt to answer the typical questions about motivation:

• Money
• Enjoyment
• Self Worth
• Helping Others
• Freedom and flexibility
• Location
• Adventure/Experience
• Outdoors or Indoors

Thinking about those things is useful, but it can leave you with a very vague idea of where you want to go. You need to be as specific as possible, otherwise you could all to easily end up settling for something you will later regret just because it happens to fit some of your criteria and it seems like the easiest route.

One thought is always at the forefront of my mind when thinking about what I want to do. Will I be sitting here in 30 years time thinking “I wasted the best years of my life in that 9-5 job” or can I do something to avoid that. I have friends who get called into work on a weekend, or have to stay at work so late some days that they practically get home, go to sleep, wake up and go back to work again. I can only assume that they put up with this in the name of money or they somehow get enjoyment out of being told where they have to be and when. I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about how I’m going to tackle this problem.

Never has the phrase “the world is my oyster” been more fitting. I risk squandering this endless opportunity by going down the typical route that so many expect - get a job, build up assets then retire. Well, that’s the safest option financially, but I would rather attempt to go a different route.

I hate the idea of putting myself in the hands of a bank, or a boss, or the government for that matter because of the restrictions and unavoidable obligations that puts on a person.

Effectively, in life, the majority of people are forced to go to work and allow someone to tell them what they can and can’t do, just so they can pay back a landlord or a rich banker to whom they owe large sums of money. This leads to competitive behavior. People step on others to get ahead so they can bring home a larger slice of the pie. People sometimes convince themselves that this often unpleasant behavior is ok by using the “Yuppie Nuremberg Defense” as the film Thank You For Smoking puts it, “I’m just doing it to pay the mortgage”. That seems to allow people not to have a conscience about anything they do to earn money.

You can easily find your self getting sucked into this vortex which is neigh on impossible to escape, where the majority of your life becomes controlled by someone else, whether you realise it or not. Before you know it you are 50 years old and what do you have? A house? a car? some nice clothes perhaps? Material possessions… great. Is that any compensation for a life time of servitude to people who are only interested in putting you in to competition with others to see how much profit you can make them. All in an attempt to get into a position where you are the one pitting others against each other to see how much money they can make for you.

I would prefer to try a different route. One which affords more freedom, flexibility and a greater sense of self respect. It is a difficult thing to do, but difficulty should never discourage a person. It just requires a bit more effort and determination.

I want to find a different way to generate income. Work for myself, create something original or start an online business. Attempt to be as self sufficient as I can, investigate ways of utilising renewable energy, grow as much of my own food as I can. Be my own master to a certain extent.

Anyone who has ever created anything or done anything different from the ‘norm’ has had one thing in common, they have all been prepared to fail. So as I strive to find my own path I know that I can’t be afraid of failure or discouraged by difficulty.

I’ll keep you posted.