r0dman.com

I read an article yesterday that was just ridiculous. A 19 year old casual employee is already $42,000 in debt – the result of a car, plasma TV and an overseas holiday. While the article claims to be about how Generation Y are getting their act together financially, I’m just reading another piece of tripe by News Corp.

I’ve always had an issue with image. Not personally – as mentioned I’m a fairly resilient person, so I don’t hugely care what other people think of my lifestyle or how I look, but coming from a private school I was inevitably part of a competition to look as rich as possible, regardless of where I actually stood in the pecking order. It’s amazing how some parents push their kids out of the car in Ralph Lauren and Nautica, despite their car running on three cylinders.

Only now have I realised that a large part of a lot of males’ image is tied up with cars. I personally have had a few nice cars, and while I have never consciously bought them for the image factor, now that I think about it image is the only reason for your car to look good. While nowadays it’s easy for me to let go of that dream, I find that most Australians consider others to be “successful” dependant on how new their car is. Going on that judgement, I must be fairly unsuccessful, right?

Whether it be for a car, house, TV, boat, bike, clothes, laptop or so on – are people actually getting into debt purely just to boost their self-image? In this crazy world that we are living in, I’m a firm believer that nine times out of ten they are.

I don’t profess to be exempt from this, although I consider myself to have things under control – a good friend of mine asked the other day if I was sick of not having a car, and that “surely you could afford it”. Quite honestly, we could afford another car, but we just don’t need one at the moment – it doesn’t make any sense.

Nowadays you just don’t seem to get any kudos for paying down your loans and owning things freehold. To date I have never had a loan for a car, and only ever taken out a loan to buy our property. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I wrote an article about the Minimalist Lifestyle not too long ago, and I feel that this ties in perfectly – to me, debt means stress. It is something that will always be in the back of your mind until it’s gone. Get rid of it and it will be one less thing to think about. Be content with less, and enjoy life rather than worry about it constantly.

Last night one of my close friends came around and I fixed his laptop for him. It took a good 5 hours and was a great catch up in the mean time.

He’s recently had a son, and while absolutely stoked on being a father, money is now a major concern.

You know those people that always need more? He’s one of those people, and he admits it openly. “I need to write a book”, he said, “I’ll call it Getting the f*ck over it“. It’s good that he can see where his hangups lie!

Here is a healthy mid 20′s male, engaged to an attractive woman who has just given birth to a healthy baby boy. They live in a nice house, and are financially safe from what I can tell. Aside from money, he is the sort of person who can see the bright side of everything.

My only words of wisdom to him were “you can never win when comparing yourself to others by income, but you can with happiness”. Don’t get me wrong, money is nice, but in the end it doesn’t make you truely happy. If you were just happy, all day every day – you can’t tell me you wouldn’t be a happier person than the remaining 90% of the world.

Choice is such a nice thing to have, but it can also be a curse. Many people choose to want more than they can realistically achieve, and their entire life just becomes one big frustration.

Choosing to enjoy your life and not comparing yourself too much with others is a step in the right direction. Live life how you want to, and not how everyone else is. Follow your dreams, and don’t listen to others’ negative opinions.

I’m planning on living the dream next year. Only 8 more months of saving and preparation!

My fiancée and I took my mum out today for Mother’s Day. We visited a botanic gardens up in the hills which was beautiful, then grabbed some lunch at a bakery. It was a nice day.

We all had a good chuckle at the botanic gardens… People’s laziness never ceases to amaze me. They make all the effort to pack half of their house in their car, along with their kids and then spend the time driving for an hour or so to a nice botanic gardens.

Presumably people go to these places to “escape”, yet when they get there they seem to flock like sheep. Everyone tries to score a park as close to the gardens as possible, then after five or so laps finally concede defeat and park the extra fifty metres away. Being such a busy day at the park there was never going to be a chance that someone would get a close park, but they always try.

After parking they get everything out the car, and everyone in the family loads up with things to carry. It’s time to find a “spot” – they walk to the closest place that they possibly can to sit down and have their lunch. Because so many people think like that, they end up “escaping” to a park where they are surrounded by others that are also “escaping”. Yet they are surrounded by others that they were trying to escape from in the first place. Insanity!

My fiancée said to mum at one stage “I can’t get over these people, not walking five more minutes to get to the nice spots that we go to. Although I suppose it’s good so those areas are free for us!”. Too true.

I really love not being lazy. Today gave me the biggest boost just walking around the gardens. The air was freezing but it just smelt so clean and fresh. Walking around to the much quieter areas the three of us had a good chance for a catch up and could actually talk without others being around. Good times.

Ok, so not the roses as such, but riding to work this morning I saw what I usually do – some very dodgy driving because someone was obviously in a rush.

I’ve always found that riding to work is an excellent way to slow down your life. The time doesn’t just fly by as much as it does when you’re driving a car. You’re actually taking things in around you, seeing the interesting, beautiful and often hilarious things that are happening in the world.

As I mentioned, this morning I saw a very near miss of a car crash. Last week I saw a motorbike try and overtake a truck on the footpath, then almost stack it into a light pole after literally skidding to a halt and letting the truck past. I know what it’s like to be behind the wheel in peak hour – frustrating. Changing lanes to pass the slow driver in front of you, having someone cut you off, and always trying to get through each light before it goes red.

Obviously this extends much further than driving a car. Slowing your life down has many positives. There is just so much going on in this world, it’s really cool to take it all in rather than being involved in it all.

A few months back I was catching up with some friends in the city for a drink after work. I was about an hour early so I just decided to grab a beer and wait for them outside on a chair in the sun. All sorts of things passed me by and it was a really enjoyable experience. Nice looking girls, those pierced goth types, a couple of homeless people all walked past. A truck did a reverse parallel park into the smallest parking space I’d ever seen! Pretty much everything I saw was interesting in some way shape or form. Maybe I should start doing that more often instead of watching TV for entertainment?

After doing a lot of riding this week, I decided to catch the bus in today. It’s a cool and overcast day in Adelaide, but beautiful nonetheless. Even just the short walk along the river to the bus interchange put a smile on my face to start the day.

Doing some research on the net this morning I have found that I’m not the only one that believes spending time outside makes you happy. It’s always been something that puts a smile on my face. Doesn’t matter if it’s the rain drops falling, looking at the clouds on a summers day, or bush walking and coming across interesting cliff faces or plants. There’s always something out there that makes me happy, as obscure as those things may be.

It’s well documented that in order to live a healthy life, you should try and get a good dose of sunlight and fresh air each day. Many believe that when you are outdoors, you get an endorphin high, which makes you instantly happier. When you spend a good deal of time outside, it is more likely that you will sleep better that night too, and better sleep means that the next day you will feel more refreshed.

In nature, most people realise their purpose. It’s hard to clear your mind in an urban environment surrounded by darkness, pollution, electronics, and all sorts of other stress. When you are closer to nature, you can clear your mind and feel connected to the world surrounding you. Like any other species, we are “just living our lives” too.

I don’t believe in any higher meaning, I believe that we are on this earth to eat, sleep and procreate. This is very hard to see sometimes, especially when you are planning for a 3 o’clock meeting, need to reply to a stack of emails, and then pick the kids up from school afterwards. Escape to nature and it becomes so much more obvious that the “something more to life” is actually less. Less stress, less frantic living, and so on. This is hard to escape at times, but the simplest escape is to spend a small amount of time outside.

Plants flourish outdoors, put them indoors where they can’t get any light and they will die. We eat these plants, and we are meant to live in the same environment as them. It’s no wonder we are so negative sometimes, we need our dose of outdoors too.

If you do one thing today, go outside and find something interesting. Look up at the clouds, look at the green grass, close your eyes and breathe in the fresh air or listen to the birds.