An Unhealthy Obsession

All my life, I've noted in others, and at some stage most likely myself, a desire to retire early. If it wasn't retiring early, it was wanting to retire my mother early. In the more recent years of my life, I've steered well away from that notion, truly wanting to spent the rest of my breathing days writing.

Why do we as humans have such an obsession with retiring early? And why do so few of these obsessions materialise? I think I can answer the first question. It's sad to say but one of the key reasons why most do the jobs they do is because it pays. That could be paying: - the bills
- holidays
- nights out
- addictions
- children
- debts


Either way, it serves as a means to an end, as opposed to because they genuinely love waking up everyday to go to that workplace. Due to this, most people can't wait to get out of what is commonly referred to as 'the rat race'. No longer having to wake up and slave away at a job that they're only doing to uphold the comfort of lifestyle that it has provided. No matter how (often subconsciously) restraining it can be.

I think beauty is found in love but love isn't easy to find and is even harder to chase. In fact, in most cases, when we find something we love, we are scared to pursue it. Scared of the consequences, scared of screwing it up. This doesn't solely apply to the love of a passion, it can also refer to love of a human (but that's a topic for another day). If you find someone you love, generally speaking, you want to spend the rest of your life with them. Applied to a career/passion, I believe that if you're doing something you love, health-provided, you want to do it for as long as physically possible.

Look at the footballers who love football (not all of them do: Benoît Assou-Ekotto And Antonio Cassano being examples of these). Some of them have a hard time retiring. Others find another way to channel their passion, through commentating, coaching etc. The point is, that undying desire remains and retirement is something they actually fear and have no intentions of doing.

If you're so desperate to retire, in order to do something that will make you happy (in many cases, just being out of that rat race), then you're spending all your time unhappy. That, I believe, is an unhealthy obsession.

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Currently listening to: Sting - Englishman in New York