Yikes. My planning was so far off it’s truly humorous.
This past year and going into this year were projected to be very slow due to the election, a lot of business development and some slowed projects. I imagined flying off to Guatemala, landing on the lake and becoming freed from obligation; surely here living in a foreign emerging country that I would have no access to being able to really do much but relax.
I was pretty busy with several projects when I left, but the end was in sight and our plan was to just coast through the moments of our daily life and work on our own projects, inexpensively. We were planning on just being together and enjoying a year living without the overhead of projects and management of money – we were just going to be on a fixed income.
Well now we know how well this went, we never stopped the bleeding. Just like NYC we continued to live in the moment, instead of the future. We were busier than expected and accommodated for the busyness by nanny’s, assistants and travel, we had to move around because of one bad decision after another with housing selections, so the work pile had to (and did) miraculously grow. I remember sitting at my desk at Joyce’s, and that I would have to remind myself to look up so I could see the view. In someways I even felt resentful of the view and wished we were still in our East Harlem walk up with no view to speak of.
But we got through and here we are. In hindsight the whole situation drove us to our current position; finding a sustainable way for us to live beyond my career. It has given me a continued purpose and practice as I wean myself from my current standing in life and move towards freedom, the conscious, thoughtful and planned way. I am giving myself a 3-year notice.
So here we are in February 2015 (can’t believe how fast it is going already this year) and our transition is beginning. We have stopped the bleeding and are extremely focused on living within our means, paying off debt and planning.
It is exciting and empowering. We are going to do this!