I think it is less what you hate you are doing than it is what you would rather be doing that is a major attraction for ER. Sure some jobs are in a toxic environment; been there and done that. For me, the attraction to ER includes this an much more.
33 years of being in quality management in the pharma. industry takes a toll on your life and your body.
32 years in some level of mangement takes a toll on your mind and your ability to balance BS from human charity and kindness.
Buring the candle at both ends and the middle dulls the spirit and keeps you away from the very life that you are working so hard to make for your family. The hours lost to working instead of being with your family is lost forever.
On the positive side....
ER a fresh start at a life without working for a wage. It is a chance for me and DW to take more than a one week vacation where we frequently get phone calls from work so we never have a clean break from the corporate leash.
We have some activities we want to do for the community and for our kids. We want some real quality time together and to travel when and where we want. We want to see things on trips we used to just speed past on our way to the next place we needed to be in a defined amount of time. We want to read the road plaques, take the road less traveled, get off the interstate highway and see how people in the areas we visit live each day. We want to eat in small town cafes and not Denney's or Waffel Houses. We want to stay in BnBs and not the Holiday Inn. We want to learn what we can about the people and their life way beyond the average tourist who see the "locals" as lazy, backward and slow minded. We want to photograph our travels and document both nature and people.
We see ER as a change to rest, to recharge to detoxify, to re-educate our minds and bodies to prepare for a new life; our next phase in life. ER is not the begining of the end...it is the start of the begining of the rest of your life unencumbered with the need to work a 8-5 job. Having the freedom of not being responsible to a work boss is a liberating experience.
Being responsible for what you do every day as Nords says, is whole new mindset. Some folks have no trouble filling the hours and are tired and happy at the end of the day. Others may find it boring because the foreced structure of time budgetiing is no longer done for you. That can be scarry for some people. Being responsible for your own entertainment and self motivation can be a double edged sword.
We see ER as our Golden Ticket to Wonka land. There is a life of wonder and imiganation beyond the cold wals painted in Corporate beige that are filled with one-way windows for managment to see the workers future with out being detected. We expect to see some marvelous things and to do thinks we have not yet dreamed of.
We also see ER as a way to get to know help our kids and grandkids in ways we never could while working 12 hour days. We want to create good memories and to present ourselves as good examples of what can be done starting with nothing and ending in FI and ER.
Our lagacy will be our memories of things done, seen, experienced, given and recevied in non-material ways.
For now, it is a goal and a date. After that dates no longer matter.
). This is when I am 32. Can't imagine what it would be like at 50 or 60.
