Financial Planning

My Ideal Day

A little over a year ago one of my mentors had me plan out my ideal day—what would I do if I hit the lottery and money was no longer an issue?  It didn’t take me long to come up with what my day would look like:

  • Wake up
  • Peloton ride and Yoga followed up by journal and meditation
  • Morning routine with the boys
  • Breakfast with Ang (in my ideal world this would be outside in a warm and sunny environment)
  • Five hours of work—RLS client meetings, content creation, networking, or whatever I’m pursuing at the time.
  • Weight Training
  • Afternoon with the boys
  • Practices and Dinner
  • Bedtime routines
  • Finish up any leftover work, writing, or reading
  • Sleep

The exercise also required me to describe every detail of the day, even including what I would have for breakfast.  It was fun to think about those fine details but for the purpose of this post, they aren’t that important. There was only rule for planning out the day…I couldn’t justify leaving something off with a “but”. Meaning, I couldn’t say “I’d like to live somewhere warm year round, BUT I can’t because it would make my family unhappy”; not every detail of the ideal day may be realistic, but it is important not to place limits on the possibilities.

Last month my friend Shauna Mace challenged to actually live my ideal day. To my surprise, I actually did—this is the type of thing I’ll schedule on my calendar and then schedule calls and meetings over it and go on with my normal schedule. I have friends who take a day once a month and head out to be in nature for the day without any technology and only a notebook—three times I’ve had this day scheduled and three times I scheduled over it. I have a bad track record of keeping dates for myself.

September 15th was my “live my ideal day” day—it also happened to be my 15th wedding anniversary. I rearranged the order of my day but that was only because Ang had something to do in the morning, so instead of having breakfast right after seeing the boys off to school we ended up having brunch. Otherwise, I got two workouts in, one at home and one at the gym, did what I needed to do for RLS Wealth and Onramp Invest, wrote a blog post and planned a podcast, and had a wide-open afternoon with the boys.

I was bit surprised how efficient and productive I was during my work time block but then I remembered Parkinson’s Law. If you’re not familiar with Parkinson’s Law, it says work will expand to the amount of time we allow for it. Meaning if I allow for eight hours to complete my daily work, it’ll take me eight hours to complete it. However, if I allow five hours to complete the same work, I’ll get it done in five.

After seeing what I could accomplish, I’ve committed to myself that I will block one day off a month to follow the schedule of my ideal day.

Enough

On the evening of the 15th, I discussed with Ang how much I enjoyed my day and explained how we were much closer to making the schedule of my ideal day a reality, if I really wanted to. I won’t have all of the details of my ideal day, like being somewhere sunny and warm year round, but those details aren’t what are most important—those details are the cherry on top. But, if I really wanted, I could make some sacrifices to what I’m currently taking on professionally and have the freedom and flexibility I desire. Those sacrifices would impact some of my savings goals and would force me to reach a couple of financial goals later in life—I’d still hit my goals, just a little later than I’m trending currently.

And that presents me with a very privileged dilemma–which do I want MORE?

I have one version of my “enough” in my sights. I have a greater version of “enough” that I”m trending towards but is a little further away. And right now, I don’t know which version I want more but I believe when the time is right, the “right” answer will reveal itself. While we’re on the topic of enough, I want to encourage you to check out my friend, Jeremy Water’s post “Enough”.

After you’ve given his post a read, and finished the one you’re currently reading 😁, think about your ideal day.

What would you do, who would you do it with, what wouldn’t you do? Where are you? What are the details of each thing you will do?

Disclaimer: Nothing on this blog should be considered advice, or recommendations. If you have questions pertaining to your individual situation you should consult your financial advisor. For all of the disclaimers, please see my disclaimers page.