What is the point in bullet points?

This is brainstorming of the past, present and future. It has been filtered through my snatched moments during a busy day.

I awoke this morning distracted, and I needed a pallet cleanser of a day. That was the context of today, and this is the output of my distracted mind. Unedited, just jumbled.

I took the time to organise them over a late coffee. In the chaos, there are clues, and in the clues, there are answers. I have learned that you can join the dots looking forward, despite what some might say.

That has been the point of the last five and a half hours.

Reflecting forward on what it is that I am doing.

There is always a way for you to move in.

I am just not that obvious on the details of it yet.

So far, though, I am moving in the right direction.

It is a general direction, but it feels right.

It feels like it will produce something that I can work with in the future.

It is a slow pace, but that is ok with me because I am in no hurry.

I ask myself the question, am I learning as I move forward?

Yes, absolutely, is my answer.

I am learning a whole lot of stuff that can help me in the future.

My inner voice checks in with me and asks, what future is that?

My future state of retirement, the state of being retired but not quite retired.

That awkward stage that I have seen many of my friends and family encounter.

The stage between full retirement, where your body no longer gives you back what you need and semi-retirement, where your commitments are muted, and you look for fulfilment in your daily tasks.

The desire to give something back drives your day.

A focus on achieving something for yourself frames out the medium-term plan.

What is different from your previous norm fills your time.

The time that you spend as carefully as the money it took to earn it.

What was the point?

“No great man ever complains of want of opportunities.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

That is the point and has been the reason for the last five and a half months.

I have been building my brain muscles.

I am stretching my habits to see how they can sustain life.

It has been a practice and a sharpening of long gone skills.

Achieved one hundred and twenty thousands words with still a bit to go.

A blog written for each day this year, but two hundred blogs still to produce.

The halfway point to be happy with.

Forty youtube videos completed, but only a quarter of the way there.

One hundred and fifty to kick start the algorithms that might grow an audience.

Feedback from myself to myself, about myself.

Being critical because some of it was fodder and filling gaps, rushed to be meetings deadlines.

I am pleased with some of it, and the chaos of it helps me refine.

What it is that I am angling for is other peoples time.

So it has to be of value, or the audience passes through without leaving a footprint.

What problem am I trying to resolve is the question that haunts my activity.

But I am in no rush, no rush because I can sustain myself for an extended period of time.

I might have to give up some luxuries, of which I have few, but I can do that.

My experiences are that I have done it before, not through choice, but I have learned the hard way.

This education I am doing now is to run deep and to illicit some change.

If I let it go without checking in, then the protections I have now is wasted energy from years gone by

What is the point?

“In three words, I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”
Robert Frost

That is the point and has been the reason for the last five and a half years.

My investment in the personal finance world and my focus on the value.

The value of my time given to work that I can not get back but which I can quantify.

I can spend that time now so that I can buy back my time in the future.

A journey of exploration that has seen highs and lows but with a consistent cast of characters throughout.

My frugal self discussing things with my reckless self, while debating plans with my neurotic self and arguing in the mirror with my sensible self and all asking for a change.

The characters have been lively, but I would not have it any other way.

Because they all drive the curiosity that pushes the mind to keep evolving with each experience.

An unruly crew all clambering for attention and each with the right idea.

My worldly treasures set aside to protect us from any shipwreck has been worthwhile.

The experience of travel and life in another country has given me the confidence for that future choice.

A nomad life, a pirate life, can be achieved because the base it is built on is stable.

There were rocky seas back then, and at times I lost my compass and spent too much.

I forgot to take the lessons and made the same mistakes along the way, some more frequent than others.

But I have learned to learn, and I know that is where my passion lies.

Doing the things that I love to do and the things that drive my creativity.

A five and a half year journey across the oceans of days that seemed to be a never ending walk up and back to work.

Days that all looked the same but were often pushing against the wind because for that last expedition.