This is a picture my wife took while we were on a road trip through North Carolina.
I live differently than most. What are some of the things that I do differently?
- I don’t watch cable TV.
- I don’t have a smart phone.
- I don’t have texting on my cell phone.
- My wife is a stay-at-home wife.
- I work an ordinary job.
- We run several online businesses.
- I’m currently in college.
- I’m 6′ 5″, yet I drive a Toyota Corolla.
- I’m 25, my wife is 24.
- We’ve been married for 4 years after dating for 3 years.
- We are SUPER HAPPY and SUPER IN LOVE.
Some of those things seem pretty ordinary until you compare me to many people in my age bracket. I’m married (and did so young), I’m happily married (yes, sitcoms have lied to you), I avoid many of the luxuries that people consider necessities, I manage my online business while working full-time & attending college, and I don’t go partying each night of the week.
In case you’re not in the loop, that isn’t how most twenty-somethings act now. So, why do I live so differently from my peers? It’s because of one word: observation.
I’ve Observed How Others Live
I’ve seen the heart-break and despair of foreclosure and repossession, I’ve seen the look of worry in peoples’ faces when they wonder how they’re going to pay their next bill, I’ve served at the soup kitchens and seen ordinary people (who look just like me) waiting in line.
I’ve seen the results of carelessness in marriage, I’ve seen the results of partying until you’re 40, I’ve seen the results of not managing your finances, and I’ve seen the results of being an employee with no other plans. I watched how others lived, and instead of saying “better them than me”, I considered it a warning shot across MY bow.
I Chose To Think Differently
I started to think differently, I looked at life differently and I sought out wisdom from people who lived differently. I learned discernment, and I learned control; although I have not perfected them. I realized the narrow path is the way I should be walking because the wide path doesn’t end so well.
The wide path is like a highway with signs that point to mediocrity, disappointment and worse. People (even family sometimes) disagree with me and my choices. They think I’m crazy that once I have my degree, I’m not going to run out and grab the next highest paying job.
People are surprised when they find out that I don’t think college is right for everyone, and it can even be a waste of money. Call me crazy, but I’ve seen plenty of people with their degrees and high paying jobs and they look as miserable as everyone else. I’ve also seen plenty of people with their degrees and no jobs.
People are surprised that I run a personal finance and entrepreneurship website, yet I don’t obsess about money, nor do I believe that I need to acquire as much as possible. I want to live deliberately, and that means living differently.
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
- Walden, Henry Thoreau
This Is Your Warning Shot
Just as I created this website to help my family, and others learn more about finances, I’m calling you out. If you are truly happy doing what you do, then you’re probably doing alright. But- If there is something nagging at you, something pulling at you, then this is probably resonating with you.
It was Albert Einstein who said:
“Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.“
Why should doing what others do be any different? How can I expect my result to be any different if I live my life exactly as someone else who is clearly miserable. If I follow a person on a walk, I will end up where they do, and I don’t believe life is any different. If I live as you do, I will end up where you end up.
Living differently is difficult. Few days go by where someone at work doesn’t poke a little fun at how I live, but I know it is for a purpose and with a purpose that I make my decisions the way I do. What do you think? Let me know in the comments.
About Wealth Artisan
I went a long time without a smartphone or texting but recently decided to get one. It hasn’t complicated my life and while it does cost a little extra a month I now get free text messaging through my data and I can get a lot of my online tasks done when I’d otherwise be wasting time waiting in lines or waiting for meetings etc.
Hi Lance!
Thanks for stopping in to comment. Smartphones didn’t make sense for my situation as I always have WiFi basically everywhere I’m at. It just didn’t make sense to pay for data when I essentially have free data everywhere.
I agree that Smartphones can either be a tool or an entertainment device. Thanks for stopping in to share your experience and perspective. Have an awesome day!
Thanks,
Timothy
This was a really great post. Although I’ve taken a bit of a different path I think we have similar ways we’ve tried to achieve our goals.
I also looked out at people around me and what they were doing for work, the dreams they had that were being put off, and in many cases their general unhappiness and I decided to take a different path. I wanted to be able to travel and have freedom to work from anywhere on the globe. It meant taking some fairly big risks to get there but I was as careful as I could be to manage them and I made sure that while I developed my online businesses that I watched my finances very carefully. Everyone thought I was crazy to attempt it too, since it wasn’t the “proper” way you were supposed to treat your career – what that is.
I enjoy some of the finer things, but going through that building process and being so detailed in how I tracked things had led to me still being careful and controlled in my finances today. Risk management is always my number one priority in any business I have and I doubt it will ever change.
Hi Garrett,
Wow! We definitely sound very similar in many regards. Thank you so much for taking the time out to stop by and comment with your own personal experiences.
It’s always great hearing what people are doing, and how they did it. I hope the best for you, your business, and the life you are currently enjoying.
Great job on seeing what you want in life, and finding an equitable way to attain it while minimizing your risk. Have a great day.
Thanks,
Timothy
I agree. I don’t live quite as differently as you do, but I also try not to let what others are doing become a determining factor in my decisions on what I should do. That was always my complaint about the lifestyle design crowd, or the Goth scene. If you are purposely doing something because it is different than the norm, you aren’t free of those norms, you are just as much bound to them as someone who follows them.
Keep up the good work!