Comments on: The Mini-Retirement Misconception

By: Sushil

Sushil — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 04:39:57 +0000

The same question I put up when interact with a new person. A known person might blend answer with perception about you. Even I do think about it and have found that:

Life is for a purpose. The journey to the goal is more interesting than the goal itself. Most of the people I asked do not have an answer to it. Because they never imagined the situation and caught awe-stuck :)

By: Bill Robison

Bill Robison — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 07:36:09 +0000

What I would like to do is go back to Costa Rica, but not as a tourist. To find a nice simple place to live and create a life there for a few months, again not as a tourist but live as a Costa Rican. I understand that I was not born there and my Spanish at best is horrible, but to get into a routine.
I would do a tourist thing once in a while but mostly eat at the same places, shop at the same stores and just enjoy being.

I think the whole mini retirement is not about a long vacation, but more about a mini retirement. I live in Orange County, California but I do not go to Disneyland often, or Knotts Berry Farm or any of the other tourist spots. When I go to the beach it is not in summer when the crowd is big, I go during the off season and eat at small places where the local people go.
To me retirement is not about going to tourist spots every day, or having a planned agenda, it is just waking up in the morning, having coffee, reading the paper and not having to do anything if I do not want to. If I want to go back to bed and sleep longer, then I can do that. Mini retirement is not about going here and there and seeing this and that, it is just a smaller version of retirement. Getting up in the morning and living in a place that is somewhere else, but living a life at a pace different than a vacation. Living life relaxed with no particular place to go.

By: Derek Ralston

Derek Ralston — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 19:25:58 +0000

Very useful post, thanks. This reminds me of a chapter from the book “The Art of Travel”, which talks about motivations for travel. It goes into how our imagined travel fantasies / escapism never live up to our expectations. The actual travel experience involves a lot of waiting, jetlag, frustrations, and culture shock that we had not anticipated. Anyway I found your post by searching for “mini retirements” under Google, and I think this gives people a more balanced perspective on things. It certainly did for me. I am planning my trip right now, and I like the idea of traveling slowly, and staying in one location for a longer period of time, learning language and culture. Thanks for sharing this.

By: P

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:13:50 +0000

I’ve traveled alone for close to a year and never once did I long for the shackles of employment or the mundanity of HOME. The rise of production in the workplace does not impress me. I have learned some people need employment, they need to feel productive. I pity them. Take the regular hours of employment and the requests for time off, and the subjugation of my dreams and my personal freedom to a MANAGER — let it all burn in the fires of Hell. I am not a HUMAN RESOURCE! My soul dies every day I have to suit up, put on my game face, and check my personal values at the door. Be here now. That is excellent advice. But in the land of business bloodsuckers, I have never been here. I have been gone, always gone, my body an empty shell, the corporate profile an invading virus. Business casual is a casket.

Travel can sometimes be difficult, but I take refuge in the knowledge that I do not have to wait in lines nor do I have to see every ancient castle or fortification. Travel is not sightseeing. I can sit in my room, if I so choose, and read; or I could while away the afternoon at a cafe. When I get overwhelmed, I close the shades. Home is where I am. Familiarity breeds discontent. Homesickness is a pang telling your heart to return to the familiar, but for your soul to rush for the unknown. No one grows without pain. Succumbing to homesickness is like succumbing to anorexia; it will stunt your growth.

By: A Little Coffee » Long-Term Travel

A Little Coffee » Long-Term Travel — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:02:31 +0000

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My daily readings 08/02/2009 « Strange Kite — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 11:34:29 +0000

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By: Dream to Reality: How I Quit My Day Job | ThinkSimpleNow.com

Dream to Reality: How I Quit My Day Job | ThinkSimpleNow.com — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:55:49 +0000

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By: shanon

shanon — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:06:53 +0000

Good article. I’ve taken more mini-retirements than I can remember. They are a natural by product of life in Alaska, as so much of the work is seasonal. I was raised to always budget my money to last through a winters lay off, and long since started to embrace them. The longest traveling one I ever took was two months, and yes, after a time, I really started to prefer to stay at home. My family, friends, hobbies, dogs everything I liked value enough to maintain in my life is at home; I dont want to spend too much time away. As a buddy once said ” After two weeks in Hawaii, all I can think is, I cant ride my snow mobile laying on this beach!”
A simple lifestyle enables any number of freedoms. Thanks for the article.

By: Nicholas Powiull

Nicholas Powiull — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 12:42:41 +0000

The system behind money is giving value and the most quickest, productive, and effortless way of giving value is through passion expressed. The universe is always expanding and through passion you help it expand.

You also help yourself expand in the process too. You teach others to reach points of empowerment through living your passion (whatever your passion might be), since you are connecting to your emotional output. Passion teaches both sides: the giver (of passion) and the receiver to expand, grow, evolve, etc. Passion is built on purpose and purpose always leads to progress through a series of events.

Here is a list of the steps in how passion teaches both sides (hence, giving/ receiving value in abundance):

1. The giver of passion is lead to a profound understanding about what they are passionate about.

2. The passion within the individual reaches a dedication to teach it. They are then inspired with empowerment to share this newly found insight.

3. Through repetition of sharing this universal knowledge of information, they subconsciously teach themselves to remember it. For example, professionals miss steps, leave details out, and consciously forget how to do their profession when teaching. Professionals do things out of habit and habits are done through the subconsciousness. The subconsciousness takes over and the consciousness is off thinking about other things. In order to teach, you have to gain conscious control and this is easy to do if your not a professional.

4. Through a series of events, eventually they subconsciously program themselves to live what they are teaching (rather than just teaching it).

5. Through living this empowered information, it leads them to another profound understanding, and the process repeats itself again. The infinite circle of progress is complete.

By: bob wong

bob wong — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 05:04:56 +0000

I like your insights extracted from your experience. I wish more people would do the same. Here are a couple of things that might be helpful for me to add.

You’re going to feel good when you are pursuing an activity that you believe contributes to your successful life.

Just like not hearing the noise of a falling tree in the forest a life not shared is a life not lived.