Mornings, Horses, Laundry, and Choices

I really enjoy the mornings.  For work I have to get up at 6:30 in order to shave, get dressed, make sure I'm not missing anything (namely my brain) and hit the 7:25 train heading towards Ofuna.  The feeling of a new day gives me a lot of energy and brings about a zen calm.  I look around and nobody knows what kind of day it's going to be.  Maybe there will be a major earthquake, or maybe I'll come up with a great lesson plan.  Either way I relish in the unknown of the morning.

Most mornings are also made better by blogs.  I read quite a few blogs (MMM, Toward Mustachianism, Dividend Mantra, Brave New Life, The Simple Dollar, Poor Student, Compounding Interest, FIFighter, DeeDubs, Skillsfire, to name a few) and I add to their traffic at least once a day hoping to consume some new bit of information about FI.  Grasping at some new morsel of story or inspiration.  You might think that is a very exhaustive list of blogs.  It's got the usual suspects sprinkled with a few lesser knowns, but they are all great.  However, every now and then I stumble upon a treasure chest of new information.  A new story to delve into and wrap myself up in.  Well this morning I was treated to a kings ransom and a new blog to add to the list.

I was heading over to MMM to check out a thread on the forum I started about biking around the USA (a dream I have post FI).  Going through the main page I noticed he had updated the blog with a guest post from Jim Collins.  I had never heard the name but according to the short intro he's a true veteran in the ways of mustachianism.  I mean this guy is a full bird colonel!  Jim hit FI around 1989 and has seen a lot according to his post on MMM.  I'm not going to rehash anything here as I'm not that good of a writer, plus you should read it from the horses mouth.

Speaking of horses...

After reading this great post I started thinking about myself (self centered I know!) and where I am at on the road to FI.  I'm turning 31 next week, I have paid off all of my debt, I have been investing since January and have maintained a somewhat respectable savings rate of around 43% for the year so far.  But more so than the financial, I feel very happy.  I have a pretty good job (teaching high school girls is not super stressful, and not very dangerous), vacation coming up, and more than anything a great girl friend.

I got out of bed and brought in the laundry, as you do in Japan (no dryers here sir).  I was folding the laundry but noticed that I was doing it with a calm that only comes in the morning.  It seemed effortless and yet all the shirts were coming out perfect.  The socks just seemed to match up.  Everything was just right.  My mind started to wonder and visualize my progress.  Here is what it came up with:

We are all in a race.  It's not a race of distance but of time.  The race is different for everyone and we all can run it in different ways.  Some people choose to go it alone, others partner up, and yet even others, like those seeking FI, choose to raise a horse.  That's right, they get a horse.  Not a giant black thoroughbred, but a small tiny colt (or it could be a filly, doesn't really matter).  You have to carry that colt and raise it up while you are running.  It's hard and takes patience because he is heavy and squirms around and is slimy (just born).  But, if you give it enough time, that colt will start to run beside you.  Maybe not so quickly at first but he is running.  He's yours and nobody else can have him unless you want to invite them to your race.

One day after enough attention and care you can ride him.  He'll take you wherever you want.  It's up to you!  You no longer have to run the race yourself.  Sure if you want to you can jump off and run yourself.  Maybe sitting on the horse and enjoying the scenery will get boring.  But, it's all up to you.

As I matched the last pair of socks I realized that I've got a colt now and he's young and very small.  I'm going to do my best to get advice from all over on how to raise this little guy into a big strong horse that can run the race for me, if I choose.  And that's really the key.  I get to have a choice. 

I'm looking forward to jumping into Jim's blog head first sometimes this week and really devouring all the information he has over there.