If you’ve been reading our blog for a while, you may remember we set ourselves a retirement date of the 1st of July, 2023 (there’s a countdown to that date in the sidebar).
We did admit more recently that the goal of 2023 was now off the table and we still haven’t set ourselves a new goal. I forgot, however, that back when we did set our retirement date, I added some Google Calendar events to our shared calendars – a countdown if you will.
So on Monday, Poopsie and I both received a calendar alert that said “FOUR YEARS UNTIL EARLY RETIREMENT!”
Except it isn’t four years until early retirement. We were completely fine with this, until we got that calendar alert.
Seeing our old dream in writing and knowing it was no longer going to come true was a bit of a bummer. In all honesty, we probably wouldn’t have achieved our original goal. But that doesn’t change the fact that we really wanted to and we were motivated to get there as quickly as we could.
Over the last two years or so, we have certainly lost motivation (and it shows in our savings rate). We haven’t dived too deeply into why we have lost motivation, choosing instead to continue to plod along, reassuring ourselves that we still save more than most people.
We both really want this to change and really want to be re-motivated toward our early retirement goals, but it seems a little unattainable at the moment. We probably need to hold another Family Meeting and figure out where we are, why we drifted off track and where we want to be in the future.
I haven’t removed the future alerts from our calendars, so we will continue to be reminded of the path not taken on the 1st of July every year. I hope that next year, when that reminder pops up, we are reinvigorated, newly motivated and back on the track toward early retirement.
Now to do the work to make that a reality. Will you join us?
Have you got any advice or suggestions for how we can become reinvigorated on our path to early retirement? We would love to hear them in the comments below!
Hello! Sorry for the long absence; I’ve caught up again.
Motivation takes brainpower, but changes such as a new job take that brainpower over. None of us has an unlimited supply so I think it’s fine that your motivation for this single goal has waned somewhat. Once you settle properly, then as you said – revisit the goal and see if it is still that important.
I’m also saying this because we’ve decided to take a forgiving stance for ourselves this year. Things are in (good) flux, and we need to focus elsewhere to get back to some stability. We haven’t given up on our goals; we’re just recognising that it would be a layer of stress that we can avoid completely by simply changing our attitude for the time being. By 2020 we’ll be settled and back into the groove, I’m sure.
The great thing about FIRE is that it is a choice. The only people applying pressure are ourselves, so therefore the only people who can relieve that pressure is us too. Give yourselves a break, set a realistic date to review what you really want, and keep on blogging!
Motivation is a hard one. I don’t think we can constantly be in a state of motivation / drive – that’s a surefire way to burnout. So be kind to yourself, take the time to take a breather, and when the inspiration hits (and it definitely will when the time is right) that’s when you fly again. The key, I feel, really is to be patient for that right spark. Because without that spark, if you push off again, the momentum might well fail to take off.
I found my second wind recently when I realised the surgeries I wanted were not quite as expensive as I had feared. The numbers were suddenly achievable and that pushed me to start looking at the numbers a lot harder again. You never know what will give you that spark, but it will appear for sure!