Deanne's Writing World
Follow me
  • Home
  • My World - blog
    • The Daily Brat
    • My writings
    • Where I've Been
  • Untangling the Knot - Field Goal Vlog
    • Training Log
    • Sneak Peak at Untangling the Knot
    • Kicking and Patriot Photos
  • The World of my Books
    • Book Reviews
    • Molto Mayhem - Favorite Italian Recipes
    • Betting Jessica's Character World
  • Author's World
  • Contact Info

Overheard at... Starbucks

4/18/2012

0 Comments

 
“I’m ready to retire before I’ve even started my career.”

Who can’t relate to that? Work is a difficult concept to understand, especially when we are young and see an endless number of days stretch before us where we have to clock in. The trouble is that it’s sometimes hard to differentiate between living to work and working to live. Which side of that do we want to be on? The answer probably depends on how happy we are with our job.

Still, no matter how much we love our job…. and let me say here that I love writing and being a mom in a way I never did when I was a marketing manager… no matter how much, there are always going to be pieces of it that are tedious but have to get done anyway. And it is probably these tasks that the young Starbucks barrista was referring to when she laughed about wanting to retire early.

This is the reason I think winning the lottery would not be nearly as life-changing as many imagine. I would never be content to sit on a beach and read books. Sure it would be fun for a while…. But at some point I would want to begin editing them or marketing them or writing my own. And, if Iwant to do the job is it still considered work? 

Yesterday my husband and I met with a financial consultant to begin planning for our own, eventual and may years off, retirement. What do we want it to be like; we were asked. Huh! Well… I’d like to have a house in Italy. But let’s say I could afford that… what would I do then? Would I still want to write…. Of course. Would I want the Italian villa to be turn-key…probably not; I’d want to work on it to make it my own. 

In little and big ways, each question raises the idea that retirement doesn’t necessarily mean giving up work entirely… perhaps it only means that we control the work we do in a way that we can’t when we are clocking in and out of a day job.

And this makes me wonder if the choice isn’t the most important thing of all. We can’t always choose th work we have to do, but a we can choose our goal in doing that work. This then is how I would define a retirement state
of mind; and it can be applied at any point depending on the perspective we have on our work. 

So, from that standpoint we can all retire early…. in fact, the sooner the better. And maybe the best time of all could in fact turn out to be before we ever even start our career.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Subscribe to my blog:

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    About Me...

    Picture

    Deanne Wilsted

    Link here to Betting Jessica on Amazon.com

    Background - Overheard While Writing
    It's hard to explain, but 12 years ago, when I started to write seriously, the only place where I could get my work done was at Starbucks. 

    Since then, 4 manuscripts and 4 favored Starbucks later, I sill find myself drawn to a cozy corner and a half-decaf Americano.... not to mention the many friendly faces that greet me when I arrive.

    And, while I try to stay focused, there are some times when the conversations or interactions that surround me draw my attention away from my own characters, and into the world of life's own characters. 

    This BLOG captures some of those funny, sincere, inspiring moments. Maybe they will give you a reason to write as well.

    Archives

    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    April 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011

    Categories

    All
    4th Of July
    Agatha Christie
    Age
    Animals
    Anxiety
    Art
    Bath
    Betting Jessica
    Blogging
    Book Covers
    Books
    Boston
    Bullying
    Business
    Camp
    Change
    Charity
    Chocolate
    Christmas
    Covid
    Dessert
    Dogs
    Earthquake
    Egypt
    Emotions
    England
    E Pub
    E-pub
    Exercize
    Family
    Fiction
    Food
    Genre Fiction
    Genre Fiction
    Goals
    God
    Government
    Gratitude
    Great Books
    Happy Hour
    Harry Potter
    Hotels
    Humor
    Inspiration
    Italy
    Jane Austen
    Kids
    Lake Tahoe
    Language
    Literary Agents
    Literary Ficiton
    Literary Ficiton
    Lost Dogs
    Memorial Day
    Milestones
    Military
    Molto Mayhem
    Mommyhood
    Music
    Nolables
    Obama
    Observation
    Obstacles
    Online Saftey
    Oxfam
    Parental Controls
    Parenting
    Paris
    Pets
    Poetry
    Politics
    Portland
    Promo
    Publishing
    Reviews
    Romance
    Rules
    School
    Science
    Seasons
    Senses
    Silliness
    Small Business
    Soulmate
    Sports
    Starbucks
    Stress
    Summer
    Summer Jobs
    Talents
    Tears
    Tennis
    Travel
    Untangling The Knot
    Vikingsholm
    Weather
    Weddings
    Writing

Proudly powered by Weebly
Photos used under Creative Commons from DonkeyHotey, Micah Sittig, dalbera, Salim Shadid, Matthew Juzenas, Ms. Phoenix, MRBECK, miss_millions, naosuke ii, charlesdyer, lorenkerns, Vegan Photo, Bellafaye, Bahman., Corey Leopold, christopher_brown, Premnath Thirumalaisamy ~ Taking a Break, F H Mira, harrycavalcante, grongar, Montgomery Cty Division of Solid Waste Services, Francisco Antunes, cumi&ciki, frankieleon, geezaweezer, kiera.chan, pulkitsinha, optictopic, Bradley N. Weber, Probably Okay!, Monkey Mash Button, Karen Roe, toritoons, frankieleon, dharrisphotog, shawnzrossi, rfduck, ell brown, Victor Tongdee, Phillips Academy, Andover, Brandon Giesbrecht, Moyan_Brenn, Patricia Pierce, Adrian R. Tan, Chris Parker2012, pds209, gabrielsaldana, g.sighele, Kevan