I’ve always been lazy. Or at least that’s what most people would probably have said about me ever since I was a child. Who knows, maybe I had the average work ethic for a kid. But average work ethic doesn’t cut it growing up on a small farm in the flatlands of Kansas. I owe a lot to that failed farming operation though. Seeing my father work endless hours to eventually have to walk away with nothing to show for it but debt exposed the futility of the ‘just work hard’ mantra. Other farmers, my grandfather included, worked until their bodies just physically couldn’t anymore. I have tremendous respect for them, but knew I would never follow in that path.  I was way too lazy for that.

Don’t get me wrong; hard work certainly has its place. Thanks to the farm, I am no stranger to long consecutive days and weeks of grueling manual labor. I know sometimes you just have to buckle down and do what has to be done. I have put in 80 hour work weeks in business too when it’s needed. But the big question to ask is simply “why?”

WHAT’S YOUR REASON TO WORK HARD?

Is it because you’ve simply accepted and never challenged the traditional path that you get a job and just work hard? Maybe get a promotion, live below your means, and save a little. Then maybe you’ll be able to retire and live the good life after forty or fifty years of working hard. Spend more than half of your adult life (and the most prime years of your life) working hard so that someday when you’re old you won’t have to work?! That sounds terrible!

So being the lazy person that I am, I started digging in to ways to possibly cut out decades of having to work… and I’ve made it happen. My answer to the “why” work hard is actually a manifestation of my laziness. I feared a life of never ceasing hard work, struggling in the rat race to get ahead, and doing so for the majority of my life. My answer to the why is so that I wouldn’t have to work for very long. I was more than willing to work hard for a window of time knowing it could shave thirty to forty years of work out of my life. 30+ years of living free… now that is a great reason to work hard!

LAZINESS DOESN’T MEAN SLOTH!

Laziness in the sense I am talking about does not mean that the desire to lay around like a sloth on a couch all day playing video games and watching TV. The type of laziness I am referring to is simply not wanting to spend my time and energy doing something because I have to. Not spending my time and energy at a cubicle dealing with people I don’t enjoy. I want to spend my time doing what I want to do and when I want to do. I can spend time on personal hobbies or passion projects like this blog.

Ten years from the start of our investment journey had been our target to get our freedom. We actually made it in seven years. Our days are completely free to do with as I please. Thanks to my laziness, my wife and I have complete financial freedom. HOORAY FOR BEING LAZY!

Related Posts:
What do you Really Want? – Finding Your Why
Fortune Favors the Bold
Oh You Could Never Retire!

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