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Photo by Wender Junior Souza Vieira

It’s been over 3 months since I did my last blog that I have been writing every month for the past 2 years. I would love to say I won the lottery and actually jetted off to some remote island sipping cocktails and enjoying BBQs all day and night swimming in the sea – but I’d be lying! 🙄

The truth is, life got a bit hectic on the work side and I took on a bit extra unexpectedly and this sidelined my bath bombs somewhat for a time and became lesser priority; even though I enjoy this the most. But over 3 months has passed now and I can’t believe it!

I think I am now officially older (I’ll refrain from saying old as I am mid thirties and can feel some piercing eyes already from some readers) as time just seems to be passing by very quickly. I’m normally the one in the moment and quite reflective and present (he says) – my friends would just laugh I’m sure! Ha ha. But that’s their perspective – we’ll come back to this later down the blog!

Now I have had a chance to breathe over a couple of bank holidays here in the UK I started to reflect on this, particularly time and how as you age your perspective on this changes. Why? I asked my self and realised maybe I could write a little blog on this to help me reflect further. Don’t worry it’s not going to be too deep, just a quick run down of my thoughts…

Time

The thing with this is, it is relative isn’t it? Not scientifically, but to the persons perspective I think. It’s easy for me to just say I’ve not had time to write my blog for 3 months or life just got so hectic! Both probably true, but the reality is I could have got up an hour earlier one day or prioritised this over something else I did, like play a computer game or go for a walk?

The reality is the mind is a delicate thing and I clearly have been pre-occupied and distracted prioritising this over writing these blogs. Which is absolutely fine if you know why you’re doing that? What is the reason? Is it for more money? Is it because you enjoy it? Is it to avoid something that is difficult or challenging? (writing a blog for me certainly is) – so I think all of these are true.

Why then, did I put pressure on myself to write one blog a month that I have been writing for 2 years? I clearly had nothing to say or write about this over the previous months or as I say my priority at that moment in time was towards something else.

I think that is absolutely fine – this is the first thing I’ve learned with time – it is yours to use as you please! The only caveat here like most people is the time we give up to work, to essentially live in the society we are present in. This was the root issue I have just reminded myself of, of why I started zebomb, my path to financial independence (retire early) (FIRE). I have a whole blog on this Side hustling your way to amazing FIRE.

I often meet people who are unhappy in work, spend too much time at work or simply moan about it. Although of course I empathise with this of course, work is very stressful and I am guilty of this and what I am about to type……this is your choice! You choose to work there, you choose to earn that money to live the life you want to live. You may say ‘actually we have no choice’, well you do, you could leave!

Now, of course that could mean in some worse case scenarios you lose your home, livelihood and quite a lot more including family and feel like you may not be supporting any dependents. But you could leave, it is a choice. So this is where FIRE comes into play. It’s about the trade off between your life energy, work and essentially money. You can’t get your time or ‘life energy’ back, so what to do? How much life energy have you traded for money? Read the FIRE blog above if you’re interested in this and you will find a good book referenced within.

Patience

I think patience is the key, those of you that follow my blogs will know I undertake Yoga, Mindfulness and endeavour to be a Reflective Practitioner, another blog on this I’ve written is 10 ways to practice self-care if you’ve not already read this.

This allows me to frequently step back and re-evaluate the situation and re-focus my efforts on my goals. Why am I working? Again do you enjoy it, do you want money for a new car? A nice house or status? If this is the case, this is absolutely fine – I am not judging anyone or saying one way is right or wrong. Just know what yours is.

But make sure you are doing it for the goals you want and be patient! I meet a lot of old and young people constantly dashing from one job to the next, next car to the next, next home to next..and on…and on.. and on…which makes me think it is time for them to just take some time out and reflect!

Perspective

This ones tricky, as I would consider myself still quite young, but I also have a lot of experience in life from a young age. This I think, along with your work occupation can give you a very different perspective of the world, both good and bad.

But what about you? Me? How do we use this new perspective? Well I think we use it to re-evaluate our own life as I wrote above, our  own path and journey through life; alongside our values and re-calculate where we want to be. Some might may say this is where as you get older your perspective shifts to retirement?

My word, don’t wait until then! Do it now. Work out everything now. it doesn’t matter if life goes mental and you go way far off from this. I am currently in the process of reevaluating my FIRE process and I’m pleased to say one item on it has now been ticked off. This was thanks to some extra work I did that I took on temporarily, despite dare I say this impacting my health and wellbeing. But I soon made it short lived for a clear goal. I am now one step closer to what I want.

Although, slightly disappointed and a bit behind where I wanted to be – but I did just spend a large amount of money on a new bathroom! You’ll laugh here, but that is because I had a shower room – with no bath 😄. The guy who makes bath bombs? So think I can justify this large expenditure don’t you?

Is it the equation for a better life?

Now, of course this is a bit of fun and enabling me to self-reflect but what if a bit of time and patience with reflection really is some kind of formula to gain a new perspective on life to make some major changes to meet your goals in life? As a child we are educated and taught to work hard, educate yourself, get a good job…why? Why wasn’t we told to just get a job, spend wisely, understand FIRE and then retire at like mid thirties or forties? Sign me up!!!

Obviously when we’re young most of us are drawn to nice cars, homes and materialistic items which feeds the cycle of the capitalist culture. But as you get older, for me certainly, this is just not what motivates me. I still want more time, my life energy back to do things I enjoy. Like visiting the lakes I love, I recently got to spend 3 days in Lake Windermere and look at some cheeky snaps I can share with you below now. I’ll be doing a separate blog on this visit next month for you, the images and drone footage is stunning. I want to go back already!

In the meantime, whatever your situation I hope this blog has given you some food for thought and enables you to at least take some time out to reflect. Only good will come from it I promise you. As always please do pop on over the Shop if you need any bath time treats, your support is much appreciated.

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