Escaping Mediocrity

I can think of at least 10 friends who have spent years counting the days (and hours, minutes, seconds) until retirement. Most of them are fixated on retirement because they hate their job and see no other way out. They are trapped in mediocrity. That way of life is not for me — time is the ultimate nonrenewable resource, and I believe that every moment spent in mediocrity is a waste.

For this reason I would be happy if my tombstone says He Did What He Wanted, When He Wanted, How He Wanted. Not because I am a selfish dick — I live my life this way to avoid falling into the trap of mediocrity. If anything — be it a job, a task, a friend, a surrounding — is unpleasant for very long I make a change. I have trained myself not to fear change because change is often the solution to (rather than the cause of) life's problems. For example:

• I stopped doing yardwork. I hated the endless cycle of cutting the grass only to have it grow back — yet I enjoy having a nice yard. So I decided to have my cake and eat it too by hiring someone else to do the yardwork. The operative word being "hire" meant that I had to free up funds by reviewing the family budget and making some cuts. It turns out I do not need collision insurance on my 1994 Jeep, and I discovered that we were overpaying $50 a month for cell phone usage. Bam! Problem solved.
• I put an end to disruptive phone calls. Apparently Phil Libin was reading my mind when he said, "I don't like it when people call me without a prearrangement via text or email. It's extremely unlikely that I'll be able to talk at exactly the time someone arbitrarily decides to call me, so it's more efficient and more polite to send a text or email first." Hear, hear. About a year ago I changed my voicemail greeting, instructing would-be callers to email me. People have learned to respect this request and communicate on my terms.

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