Knowing Exactly What You Want

To Get To Where You Want To Go

Gordo Byrn

Jul 25, 2023

I was 31 years old at my first retirement. Over the 23 years that followed, I retired two more times & discovered part time is a better option.

What Does…

Your Dream Job Look Like?
Your Dream Marriage?
Your Fitness 5 Years From Now?
What Do You Want From Your Kids? For Your Kids?
How Much Flexibility In Your Schedule?
How Much Do You Want To Work?
What Do You Need To Be Paid For That Work?

So many questions… it’s overwhelming, I know.

Tackle Them One At A Time
No More Than Three Criteria Per Item

In this series, we’re going to walk through what I’ve learned creating my life situation. I’m going to share how I ticked the boxes on each of those items.

You’ll learn my criteria for each aspect of my life. I hope this helps you build your own.

One of the things that differentiates my approach, I know exactly what I am seeking…

Sport
Relationships
Spouse
Kids & Family
Work
Schedule

Clarity Enables Consistent Action

Clarity also enables:

Decisive action when opportunity presents itself.
Comfort with the endless “no thank you’s.”
The wisdom to yield (on everything else).
The ability to understand what motivates others.

Dealing With Dead Ends

One of the replies, to my tweet on retirement, was an observation that not all jobs are suited to part-time work.

From 1990-2000, I worked in one of those jobs.

I loved it.
I saved.
I plotted my escape.
I left.

Realizing…

You are in the wrong place.
Your current life is not a good fit.
You dislike your status quo.

Very useful information. Start planning your escape.1

As a young person, it is more common to discover where we don’t fit, what we dislike, how we don’t want to be… opposition seems to be hardwired into us.

Find Your Fit

Finding My Fit took a decade.

First I had to leave my old life, my old habits behind.

Two years later, I won Ultraman Hawaii.
Five years later, I was married to a kind, gorgeous, professional athlete.
Eight years later, I was living in a new country working as a triathlon coach.

So if you think you’re on the wrong path then congratulations.

You have important knowledge.

Dead End Habits

My job wasn’t my issue.

My issue was me.

Constant external dissatisfaction has an internal cause.

Sure, my career, my location, my peers… were not a good fit.
Everything external can be changed - with effort, over time.
I had been changing locations, jobs, peers… regularly since my teens.

My way of seeing the world, my habits and how I interacted with other people… I was holding myself back.

Without addressing the internal issues, I would have ended up the same guy in a different location.

Each of us, needs to make it happen for ourselves.

To Come:

Timelines
Step-by-Step
A Filter For Doing and Not-Doing
Avoiding Optimization

We are free to change at any time. Change our habitual responses. Change our thought patterns. Change everything, and anything, that is preventing us from achieving our goals.