Finding Your Not-So-Static "Why"

“When we graduate, let’s move to Thailand”, I said while sitting in the frat house pre-college graduation. That night, I probably drank too many beers and woke up with a burrito next to me. When I graduated, not much had changed. I still knew that I wanted to be living abroad, getting a fair dose of vitamin sea. More generally, I knew an office wasn't for me and that I needed to find some sort of alternative. 

When I quit my job to pursue pretty much whatever came my way, I had a “why”: I didn’t want to sit in an office, commute to work daily, live in a city that as I write this is experiencing something they call a polar vortex. I had been reading and listing to podcasts about real estate investing. I had been networking with people out doing it. I was ready (or so I thought, perhaps good to be naive sometimes). 

Just recently, I have felt a bit lost. Actually, for a year or more I have been kind of coasting. When I think back, it isn’t like I haven’t been productive. I added some assets to the portfolio and have slang some pretty cool deals. However, I just haven't been scaling as I know I could. I put it off to being scatter-brained and “too much going on”. This is probably true, but there is a bigger reason - I lost my “why” (well, perhaps it just expired). I don’t have to worry about going back to sitting on I-90 after a day of working on something I couldn’t give two shits about. This is a good thing.

Now I face a dilemma: I just turned the big 3-0. Although I am sitting in a hammock listening to the same Jack Johnson tune that I was probably listening to eight years ago, I got some stuff to sort out: What do I want? Why do I want it? What motivates me at this point in my life?

These sounds like big questions. I guess they are, but I also think they are questions that I am lucky to be able to ask. I think everyone should do this. Don’t just make a new years resolution - know why you are making it. Looking forward to figuring it out. After that, time to figure out the “how”.