I was reading a featured article over at Rockstar Finance lately that was a snapshot of that blogger’s idea of living with intention.

And that day sounded just generally… perfect. Like, I was crazy jealous of the idea that this could be someone’s life but I have never really tried to make that my life.

I’ve been hyper-focused since I was 19 at succeeding in my career no matter what. So I go where the jobs are. And I work on the holidays. And I miss the friends and family events. And I work ridiculous 12-14 hour days, 6 days a week on a fairly regular basis. And I believe it when my industry makes me feel lazy for wanting things like 2 day weekends and sick days – those are for the weak.

Newsflash. They’re not. I mean… I think a major tipping point for me over the last two or three years has been the thought that a 40 hour work week and weekends and vacation days and sick days are not weak. What nonsense. How broken in the entertainment industry that we can’t get our sh*t together and still function within those constraints?

That’s a post for another time. Actually, I addressed it a little when I was musing on pivoting. And another time when I was flat out ranting about life in the arts.

N-E-Way.

Hyper-focus works. Do you know how hard it is to be a successful stage manager? I do. And I am.

But burnout is real too. And maybe just so is change. Maybe I just think this life is kinda nonsense now. But if I consider stepping away from it, I’m left with this big, black hole of nothingness, because who would I even be if I didn’t do this? It’s eaten my whole life other than it and now I feel a little bit like a captive.

Oldster on FIRE and his post about living with intention has really just been another straw on the back of this camel’s back though and it’s challenged me to think a little bit about what my perfect days would look like. I mean, how can you achieve your goals if you don’t even know what they are? It’s worked wonders over here in the personal finance realm for the last five years, so today we venture into lifestyle goals.

Wake Up

Sometime between 7 am and 8 am, because when I’m not tired and stressed out all the time, my body just does then. Stay in my PJ’s, grab a cup of coffee and work on this here blog you’re reading.

Make a healthy breakfast (I actually like eggs with vegetables scrambled into them). Read some personal finance blogs. All of this should take me to around 11 AM.

Swim

I’ve discussed this before. I really like swimming. It’s pretty much the only healthy thing I will do willingly. In my perfect world, I belong to a nearby gym, with a nice pool, that is largely empty between 11 AM -1 PM most days.

Get Ready for the Day

I mean, to be fair, in these perfect days, it’s largely underway. But I’d return home, shower, change and be ready to conquer the world.

Work

I’d like to have something in my life that I do between then and dinner. Since perfect world doesn’t take money into account, it could be volunteer work, but real world also thinks – could I be freelance writing? Could I be preparing taxes (if I went that pivoting accountant route)? Could I be financial advising (if I pivoted to a financial advising career)? I could probably be doing an awful lot of things.

Dinner

In my very perfect world, I live near enough to my parents and to some friends to eat with them kind of regularly. Maybe in my very perfect world there’s a roommate of the attractive male variety, but even though we’re dreaming big here, maybe that’s a little too big.

Clubs

I’d like to join a roller derby team! I want to volunteer somewhere! I want to be part of a Bible study! I want to have normal human activities and interactions. Not like every night, cause I am a hardcore introvert who needs a lot of time to herself, but ya’ know, two activities a week or something.

~~*~~*~~*~~

When I think of the whole FIRE movement, I wonder a little about the retiring early part. For me, leaving the road and stage managing wouldn’t suck – and if I could make it 11 years in this job, I could probably retire early at the ripe old age of 44.

However, I know me and I couldn’t just like actually retire. I’d die of boredom. I mean, I have 6 weeks of part time from home work happening right now and I filled the extra free time with an OSHA 30 course and a Michelle’s Making Sense of Affiliate Blogging Course because I really do not know what to do with big piles of free time.

But the Financial Independence part is definitely a siren song. I’m concerned that if I took a few steps towards this perfect day, it would require the compromise of a 9 to 5 job and then would that just make me a different kind of miserable? I couldn’t really say.

I can’t stop looking at that day though and thinking it looks a lot happier than most of my current ones when I’m working.

What would your perfect, intentional day look like if you didn’t have to worry about money? Is there anything you can do to get a step closer to it now?