Riemer, you’re in your early thirties… aren’t you way too young to speak about your retirement?
⛱ 1 year of mini-retirements
A mini-retirement is actually an intentionally planned period away from work. It was first established by Tim Ferris in his great book “The 4-Hour Work Week'“. The original idea was all about not waiting until you’re old to retire. But taking a regularly sabbatical of several months up to two years. Over the years some variations appeared. A mini-retirement can be e.g.
a break of half a year - 2 years
a yearly break of 1-2 months
a (longer) weekend every month
…
It can be a holiday, but it’s more than just the ‘work hard-play hard’ mentality. The main idea is to step away from your everyday routine or job. It allows us to take a step back, rest, and do some reflection. Mostly it gives you lots of new ideas and future plans.
Since my wife became self-employed and started as a dog behavior expert, we created some pressure on the work-life balance. Her work mostly takes time at weekends and evenings. I often support her business. In combination with some hobbies that doesn’t leave us much time to rest or think.
So, about 1 year ago we started by blocking 1 weekend or long weekend every month. Instead of taking a break when we really need it, we now have a system that works proactively. It’s not always a fancy holiday. The main idea is to get away from everyday life. To get a real mental reset, we usually turn on the out-of-office and often turn on the plane mode on our phones.
Also this year we took a break of 1 month for the first time. It definitely helps to decompress and start fresh. Like Jacques Sternberg said
"Vivre, ce n'est jamais que reculer pour mieux sauter."
or ‘life is all about stepping back a bit to leap even further ahead’. We returned yesterday evening from our September mini-retirement break, so… Ready, Set, GO!
😍My Favorite Things of last week
💸 Investments: I invested in my first Index Fund - the S&P 500. I had some investments & stocks in the past, but when we bought & renovated our house 2 years ago all cash was welcome and we sold all of it. I’ve never invested in an index fund before, but have been thinking about starting these long-term investments for a while. For the non-economists: an index fund follows a benchmark index f.e. the S&P 500 follows the top 500 American companies and the cash put in this fund is used to invest in a portfolio of all these companies. It’s a great way to spread your risk and is usually used for long-term investments
🎭 Improv: as many of you will know I started about 1 year ago with improvisational theatre (improv). Last week the 4th level started and we’re now learning all about long-form improv. Whereas up until now it was all about high energy, being funny, and creating a fast scene (short-form), we’re moving now into longer scenes which can even take 45min. I’m very excited!
🚀 Work - Innovation Core team: Earlier this year I was selected to be part of the innovation core team at work. It’s a group of people from all over the organization working together on an innovation framework. The end of the year is near and the workshops are getting more and more concrete. We’re almost at our end goal: creating 4 different possible scenarios of how the world of care, health, and well-being might look like in 2040. These scenarios will then be used for future strategic decisions. I’m very happy to be a part of this!
🎙 Podcast - Deepdive MKBHD: I absolutely loved the deepdive podcast with ALi Abdaal and MKBHD (a 16M+ tech Youtube channel). It gave a very honest view on the longevity of creators. As a creator on Instagram or Youtube, you usually have a certain lifespan. People find you only interesting for a couple of years. Similarly to top sporters, you have to be continuously aware of that and think about the future. I found it also very impressive the way how Marques (MKBHD) doesn’t care so much about sponsorship deals. He could be making much more money, but his full focus is on creating good videos.
✈ Travel - Egmond aan Zee: Last weekend, we went to Egmond aan Zee in The Netherlands. It’s a very small fishing village with a surprising amount of German tourists. I liked the fact that even though it was focused on tourists, there were still oldskool small fishing boats everywhere. And very fresh fish & chips!
🗨 Quote of the week
You don't need to know the end of the story, you just need to know what comes next
✏Visual of the week
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Great read, Tim Ferris!
I am planning an Elysium retreat this year, my Canadian friend founded this: https://elysiumretreat.ca, I have the work book.
I disagree with the quote of the week: I think it's perfectly okay to not know what's next :-) Who knows, could be anything...