Important Questions

–Tim Ferriss always seems to ask the best questions: What would this look like if it were easy? How will you know if you don’t experiment? What would less be like? The one that hit me the hardest, when I was maybe 25, was “What do you do with your money?” The answer was “Nothing, really.” OK, so why try so hard to earn lots more of it?

The passage above I stole from Ryan Holiday in his blog post 33 Things I Stole From People Smarter Than Me on the Way to 33.

Although the passage is Ryan’s (him ‘stealing’ from Tim Ferriss), I have been asking those questions, especially “How will you know if you don’t experiment?” and “What would less be like?” for the longest time. And at 43, I’m a decade older than Ryan, but nowhere near as prominent as he is (but that’s not the point).

The point is, experimentation has gotten me into quite a pickle on quite a lot of times, but that very act also brought me here to where I am right now. I have no regrets for all the lessons learned along the way. I look forward to more experiments for the remaining days of my life. Remember, we are dying every day.

As for “less,” I definitely want the least possible to live in a comfortable, debt-free life, with less or none of the non-essential commitments that come with owning things. Or being in relationships that bog me down. Or working in a job that doesn’t bring satisfaction. I want to be like my cat, Mister Pops, who although owns little, has what truly matters: the people who love him and care for him and he does stuff that makes him happy such as sleep, eat, play, and poop (and repeat!). Most of all, he makes me happy and that, I believe, is what he wants to do too.

It is highly possible to have a meaningful and great life with less.