Having a Life Plan Doesn’t Always Work

When I was 15 I started my work experience at a Quantity Surveying practice (I wont bore you with the details), I completed two weeks, really enjoyed it and decided to continue working with this practice for the summer holidays.

I was given a contract and then started to work as a trainee pretty much every school holiday until I finished school, and then again with college. I always had a 5 year plan, its changed slightly over the years, but I have always been ready for ‘life’. When I was at college the plan was;

• Finish College
• Go to Uni and get Degree while working
• Become a Chartered QS
• Long run goal – Director.

I finished college with distinction in Construction & the Built Environment, I went to Kingston University to study a 4 year part-time degree (1 day) while continuing with work 4 days per week. I was hitting my goals, but then I got sidetracked by a change in career, I guess I was bored at work, fed-up of what I felt was under-valued and tried to move into Commercial Agency.

This was not fun, nor what I imagined, I had left university and my goals had all changed.

I wanted to return to Quantity Surveying and to get my degree, I got a new job and re-started my degree at the University College of Estate Management, I was back on track with a revised 5-10 year plan;

• Get Degree
• Get Chartered
• Become Director

People have always told me I’m lucky to have the career I want, and to have 5/10 year plans, etc. however nowadays I just feel like a hamster on the wheel, maybe I have been watching too many YouTube videos or reading too many Blogs, maybe I’m just in a bit of a rut at work, but I always wanted the big house and the nice car and even my Bucket List item of Making £1Million by the age of 40.

Fuck that.

What good is making a million by the age of 40 when (in my opinion) I wont get to enjoy it, I want kids by then and we all know that kids put restrictions on what we can do, travelling the world a prime example and something I REALLY want to do, you cant do that with kids.

Maybe losing my dad at 66 has made me think that retirement is severely overrated, granted he smoked 20 a day for the last 50 years but we never know what health situations can happen, people I know have been the healthiest, non-smokers around, yet something bad can happen to anyone.

I want to enjoy life as much as I can, I want to enjoy my remaining 20’s and however much of my 30’s as possible before I settle down and focus on the “real world”.

And by enjoy, I pretty much mean travel – life is enjoyable, but I want it to be Awesome!

Check this video and tell me it doesn’t make you want to travel –

Seriously if that doesn’t make you want to travel, how about this one –

Even before now 80% of my Bucket List was filled with Travel plans but now I’m taking out;

• Own My Dream Home  –  As a kid my dream home was a mansion in the Tuscan Hills of Italy, now the perfect home is somewhere that just feels like home, somewhere I can live happily, raise my kid’s and just have a great life. This goal may take some time to achieve.
• Own A Holiday Home  –  I pretty much hate British weather, I think it sucks, maybe a beach house in Italy or a Mountain retreat in Switzerland.
• Own A Dream Car  –  Something like a Lamborghini, a Ferrari, an Aston Martin, etc.
• Make £1Million By Age 40.
• Own a Tailored Suit and an Expensive Watch.

All OUT.

Now I completely understand that travel costs money, but I want to make sure I maximise money as much as possible over the next couple years so that I can really shift my focus from living to work into working to live!

Time to replace those old dreams with new dreams because its better to fill your life with adventures, not things. Have stories to tell not stuff to show.