I’ve recently become interested in the future. Not so much flying cars, or living on the moon, but rather what will make me happy in the future. Think about it, we work our full life in the hopes of happy retirement. But what does retirement really mean? does it mean not working at all? does it mean fishing every day, golf or walks on the beach like they show in the retirement commercials? When I stopped to think about it, that’s not for me. I know that I always want to be doing something. Solving problems, doing something interesting… who knows? But the whole concept of retirement as it’s pitched on TV doesn’t apply to me… does it apply to you?
Now, the thing that I recently started looking into, is what will make me happy in 20 years? Right now, I’m working hard, saving money, investing, etc. But what do I want that money for? I don’t have a plan or a hobby, that I’m aiming for. Now, I have some hobbies, but not enough to fill my time. Of course, I want to take care of the family, college if the kids want to go, be able to pay off the house, and not have to cut my standard of living. But often, I start looking at the numbers, and think I need to save more and more and more… but I don’t have a good reason for why I need more.
So I started reading a book called Stumbling on Happiness. I haven’t finished the book, but getting half-way through has been very interesting. It’s kinda scientific at times, but overall, it gave me a new perspective. The concept is that how can you possibly know what will make you happy in 1 year, much less 20 years? All too often, I don’t even know what will make me happy next week, much less years from now. So this made me wonder, how do I know what I want is what I will want in the future???
Obviously, this isn’t an easy question to answer, but currently this is something I’m wrestling with. It’s a question I suggest you ask yourself as well. What will make you happy in 10, 20 or 30 years from now. If you don’t have an answer yet, give it some serious thought.
Thanks for reading,
As always, thanks for reading and don't forget to check out our SAP Service Management Products at my other company JaveLLin Solutions,Mike