Livelihood

Tuesday, June 22^nd, 2022, at 10:10 AM Alaska Time

Contents

• Introduction

Introduction

Historically this category has been the one with the greatest importance to me, maybe above the importance of fitness and nutrition, which have also received quite a lot of attention and time in my personal notes and journal, which I’ve called my Personal Form.

The reason for this is really simple. I dropped out of Highschool early in my Senior year due to poor performance, but not due to aptitude or lack of giftedness. By intelligence I was already established as one of the smartest students in my school since I was tested in elementary school. However, having dropped out of high school, I immediately felt I was up against much difficulty in progressing financially if I did not make changes, since I did not have a resume and history that had a great outlook for financial growth. I also worked at minimum wage, and after many hours, saw a pleasing but only a small accumulation of money for the effort.

Shortly after getting my high school equivalency diploma and starting college, I discovered certain interests in philosophy and ethics, which persisted to the present day and are the causes of this work. These interests, and my other academic interests were not those that were consideredviable for attaining a level of wealth, however. I was aware of two writings which were relevant here for my decided future trajectory: The Bell Curve listed that those who dropped out of high school were anticipated to have a very low expected outcome regarding financial life, and somethign from the work of Bertrand Russell, discussing the need for some wealth to have that leisure time needed for the reflections that he and I both desired for higher quality lives. I also encountered a book called “The Millionaire Next Door” which provided some guidance as to frugality to achieve a comfortable life, which was consistent with other messages.

Reflecting on these views and my predicament, having a poor resume at the time, I wanted to self-develop and have a career that paid more than what was required to later have liesure time requisite for academic pursuits. I thought to myself at that time that I needed to choose a desirable career that would produce the maximum wealth for the least amount of effort. At the time I thought technology was the best route, although I was also pursuing degrees in college in fields, Psychology and Philosophy, that did not have such an expecation. I kepts those interests going in parallel with my interests here in creating a better livelihood.

What does “livelihood” mean? If you look through the categories I listed in my priorities I did not include a category for finances, or for social stature and positioning, or for economic self-improvement, or for increased station in life. Livelihood includes things like 1) Living in a nice neighborhood, 2) Having adequate savings to feel safe and comfortable 3) Having a resume and personal history that allows for easy employment 4) Having income that makes it easy to procure and have good things, and 5) Becoming retired early. Many other things can be included into livelhiood which are in the other categories too, and there is no expectation that these categories would not interrelate. For example, one wants high quality friends, and not ones that make life more difficult. One wants education, to improve the mind, and so on. But livelihood here is more connected with income and finances and spatial well being, because these things contribute to quality of life in ways that already do control and allow for the other categories to develop. For example, it is difficult to have high quality friends if you live in poverty and spend your time in poor quality environments. Money and savings, and creating and staying in good spaces does quite a lot in ensuring that all other categories are taken care of, and I think that makes the term “livelihood” appropriate for this section that influences the other sections.

Today, I am semi-retired. I have totally and completely fulfilled my mission with respect to livelihood, in very close keeping with my vision that I had at about 20 years old or slighly after.

Nevertheless, there are still reasons for wanting to return to attend to this topic. I’m 41 years old as I write this. I am in a good financial sitution but that can turn. I am semi-retired, but health changes and other circumstances can lead to diminished livelihood. My frugality, however, is easily returned to so I think I will be quite fine whatever circumstance I have, particularly with all my accomplishements creating a sense of perpetual satisfaction, but this category still lends itself towards my ability to really get back into frugality. Even in a good position it makes sense to give livelihood some attention, and as I reflect on it now, it may not be possible to totally escape any need to have any concern about livelihood. I’m not sure that was a goal I ever had, although training to not really require the form regarding livelihood was somethign I had in mind. Becoming automatic regarding the creation and sustaining of livelihood is part of the mission of the form. While I did achieve that I can feel that there have been some changes which really do require attention, particularly after divorce and after having some changes in the last few years.

This category, nevertheless, now has lower priority. However it is included here because it is a necessary thing to attend to, to be sure nothing of great importance has been omitted, and to maintain a partial mental holism about one’s life. I want to be aware of this but not necessarily spend as much time since most of what I wanted to complete is already done, and I am already experiencing the benefits.

I will include here some of the simple things to focus on, which I will continue to use myself, which might also help for the moral training of others who wish to have the same for themselves.

More soon!

[Written in 38 minutes with no edits or spell checking]

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