Hard lessons of FIRE: loss of identity....unbearable amount of free time.

I've been spending my pandemic time doing research for a pet and a friend with serious health issues and it has made a positive impact for both. For one I just found a very recent microbiome study that shows the difference in gut bacteria between healthy controls and patients with of the illnesses I've been researching. Then I found tests that can be self ordered for only $100 that tell the patients exactly what bacteria they have now in their microbiomes. After that I looked up all the bacteria that was "off" in the illness microbiome and what foods would likely correct the issues.

It is pretty crazy how the tech field is disrupting main stream medicine these days. I'm glad to have the time to follow their machine learning / AI research to help myself, friends and family. Way cooler than working and filling out TPS reports.
 
I get the loss of identity part. I practiced orthopedic surgery for 35 years and I think it’s hard not to get tied up in your job. But I feel 5% of the stress I used to have. To me, having a surgery practice seemed like having 10,000 children, any one of which could call with a severe problem at any time. I don’t miss having that hanging over me. I have to tell myself that there were good times but also plenty of bad ones, and it’s way too easy to only remember the good times. As far as boredom goes, a little bit of occasional boredom is a small price to pay for the benefits of not working. I’ve used an alarm clock twice in 2020 and man, getting a good nights sleep is pretty damn sweet.
 
Aerides said:
It's Marketwatch, the author is maybe 40, probably younger.

pass....
Click to expand...

Clicked on the link, and the instant I saw who the author was, I had a good laugh. I've read her writing before--think I might follow her on Twitter, actually--and I seriously doubt she's even hit 30 yet, let alone 40!
 
I’m still working, but I have 11 days off in a row starting to,or row. I sure hope I don’t lose my identity during that time span!

I can’t wait til July 2022 to try to lose my sense of identity...
 
peterj said:
I get the loss of identity part. I practiced orthopedic surgery for 35 years and I think it’s hard not to get tied up in your job. But I feel 5% of the stress I used to have. To me, having a surgery practice seemed like having 10,000 children, any one of which could call with a severe problem at any time. I don’t miss having that hanging over me. I have to tell myself that there were good times but also plenty of bad ones, and it’s way too easy to only remember the good times. As far as boredom goes, a little bit of occasional boredom is a small price to pay for the benefits of not working. I’ve used an alarm clock twice in 2020 and man, getting a good nights sleep is pretty damn sweet.
Click to expand...

+1, but insert Otolaryngology practice, and now with 1% of stress. No foreign body/airway emergencies, bleeding tonsils or neck GSW. Focusing on health and family.:dance:
 
I happily lost my identity as a working person. I agree that life is for living (and not for working).
 
I admit that I was sometimes unsettled in the first year of retirement, especially with COVID blowing up our new routines, and thought I might return to work at some point. Have now gotten over that.

Can't imagine returning to the full-time grind, and don't see that I will have any financial need to. As for part time work, by the time the health risk of meeting large numbers of people indoors has passed, I will have been out of the workforce too long.
 
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