Save Energy For Something Beside Your Job While You’re Still Working
I was a pretty big David Letterman fan. I started watching him with my brother in 1982, his first year on the late night show. We had an old 13″ Panasonic black and white TV and we’d build forts using old sheets in the basement and hide the TV inside.
One of my favorite things he did was dropping stuff off a 5-story tower. It seems like low-ball humor and unoriginal by today’s standards but this was 1982 and nobody was doing that on TV. I was a kid, I wanted to see stuff get smashed. The simple, good ole days.
Well Letterman retired from the Late Show in 2015, not really an early retirement since he was 67. He was recently on the Ellen Degeneres show and said he made a mistake by staying on TV way too long. He added:
You want to make sure you have some energy to direct toward other things…. all I cared about was myself, and then the show was gone and I had to realize, ‘Oh, I’ve been looking through the wrong end of the telescope. There’s more to life than, ‘So tell me about your pet beaver’.
That last part was apparently an inside joke of some sort with Martha Stewart.
But listen to what Letterman said, it’s not that he didn’t know what to do after retirement, he didn’t have enough energy to direct towards even finding those things while he was on TV.
That’s a big difference.
No Free Samples
Whenever a blog about FIRE or early retirement gets on a mainstream site I see comments that say something like “meh, I don’t know what I’d do with myself if I retired early”. And common advice in the FIRE blogosphere, which I agree with, is to retire to something. Don’t just retire to get out of your job.
But Letterman exposes a bigger issue for many people, do they even have the energy to explore what they want to do? Many things have to be tried first before you realize you like them. So how will you know if you like mountain biking or not unless you have the energy to try it? It’s the same for painting, or woodworking, or any number of great hobbies to pursue.
At one point in my 30’s I got obsessed with the idea of oil painting. I love looking at oils and always had a creative side to my brain that countered the STEM side, so I really wanted to try to do some myself. On a whim I went to the arts store and bought a complete starter kit. I had everything to get going, and tried a few paintings. Not only were my paintings horrible, I really didn’t like the process. I didn’t like the complexities of mixing oil paints. And even though I knew oils took long to dry, I didn’t know they took that long.
It wasn’t for me, so I sold my kit and moved on.
Many or I dare say most worthwhile activities have to be tried, possibly numerous times, before you can figure out if you like them or not. But if you’re working 60 hours a week and also trying to take care of a family and possibly exercise, you likely don’t have time to try anything you might be interested in.
I definitely had periods in my working career when I didn’t have the energy to do anything besides work except sleep and eat. It’s easy to see how it happens, and some people spend their entire career in a state like that. I work with a few of those folks. They’re the ones who are in their 40’s but look like they’re in their 60’s.
Letterman was obviously a workaholic judging by his comments. He was obsessed with his career and his show. Next thing you know, he was at the other end of the telescope to use his analogy, and realized he didn’t know what to do. He didn’t have energy or time to devote to trying anything.
So if you don’t already know, take Letterman’s advice and devote energy now to what you want to do at the other end of the telescope.
Your Turn Readers – Are there things you’d like to try but don’t have the time or energy for because of your job?
I love the “other end of the telescope” line. I suspect many who get forced into retirement feel the same. It’s critical to experiment a bit before you retire, and intentionally “ramp down” your mental focus on work as you “ramp up” your focus on post-retirement life, starting ~1 year before your retirement date. Good post!
So true, and your experiment with road-trippin in your RV is possibly going to transform you into a permanent nomad!
Letterman is an Indiana boy like me. We went to church with his mom, Dorothy Mengering. I say went to church with loosely. It was a church of over 4000 members. She was there every Sunday with her husband Hans.
Letterman used his broken and self deprecating humor to build a phenomenal career. There was always a sadness about him. Still is. To me, it isn’t the fact he worked until age 67. It’s the fact that he never found satisfaction in his life. He’s never really been happy.
He used that to his advantage with his comedy. Unfortunately, it didn’t transfer to his personal life IMO.
Very cool! I agree, Letterman always had a melancholic side to his goofiness. Not sure if because he’s not happy or it was just his thing. I’m a bit similar. Maybe it’s why Letterman and I both really like the music of Ryan Adams, which leans melancholic.
Totally agree, but one thing:
Can’t use work as an excuse that you have no time and energy to do other stuff. Yeah, like you said; it’s difficult when you’re working 80 hours plus taking care of little kids while barely keeping your life together. Been there bro.
But think Parkinson’s law. That whole idea of a task, no matter the size, expanding to the time you give it.
Even if you’re working 40 hours at a mundane job, that relatively minimal amount of stuff can feel like it’s taking all you’re time and energy. Been there too, I’m sure most of us have.
Only solution I can find is to be absolutely brutal about managing your time AND energy. Carving out even a few hours a week for stuff you actually want to do or explore. Bigger than that though is keeping your thoughts disciplined. Catching yourself thinking about work when you’re not there, and deliberately thinking about something else can be huge. It’s difficult and takes practice, but it’s the only way I’ve found to fight that natural tendency of work creeping into personal time and killing your energy to do what you want.
So true, when many folks say they don’t have the time it’s a matter of priorities. Additionally, the average American watches 5 hours of TV a day – that means many watch even more than that! I think just cutting out or cutting down on TV would make Americans happier, more skilled at things, and more productive.
Great post! I totally resonate with feeling as if I may not have anything to FI for. I have been actively working the past year on exploring and finding downtime passions, and am feeling more confident in that arena. A recent conundrum for me is whether to return to a lower COL area with higher crime, lesser community services/hobby amenities, or to continue to try to figure out how to “life hack” my current higher COL area. I recently explored teaching a class (on a personal passion) as another side hustle — yet found it (at least initially) seems to be adding more pressure and stress, of course taking away more time. Can’t get in the parasympathetic relax mode as a teacher (yet). More exploring to do re these COL and FI areas! Thanks so much for all you post. Open to any thoughts from the community! 🙂
I’m basically in the opposite position. Currently in a low COL area,few community/hobby amenities, decent amount of crime(which at least makes my job interesting). Thinking about moving somewhere more expensive but with more to do and get involved in.
I’d be really interested to hear about your decision making process and how it works out.
Please blog about it, and let me know when you do!
Thanks.
It’s all about exploring and I’m constantly doing that too. Teaching is great, and my 17 year college teaching gig recently ended. I’ve been weighing the pros and cons of starting another gig. I’ve even had an offer but I’m frozen in analysis paralysis.
“I definitely had periods in my working career when I didn’t have the energy to do anything besides work except sleep and eat.”
> You had time to sleep – doesn’t sound like a very busy time to me (that was a joke by the way) 😉
In all seriousness, perhaps one of the best things about a job that you know you’re going to be pushed out of some day is that it’s a limited value prospect. Logically, it makes sense to plan for ‘act 2’, i.e. life after the job, because you always know it’s going to come to an end. I think any job with an ‘up or out’ structure will fall into this category.
HH
Ha! I barely had time to sleep 😉
i’ve been there too where it was all work/eat/sleep and it sucked. the past two years have been pure glory, though, with this low pressure gig. it was a pay cut but that doesn’t matter because life is 200% more enjoyable. i suppose there is some luck involved but some is that you design the life you want. i feel like i have all the time in the world even with this job. it’s even better now that mrs. smidlap is very part time if needing to report to work at all.
i would like to see those oil paintings. i never went down that rabbit hole but spent way too much time trying to see if i enjoyed golf. i was terrible and never seemed to get better and haven’t touched the sticks in about 3 years.
Believe me dude, you do not want to see those paintings. I tossed them out because the world was an uglier place with their mere existence. We need more of your wife’s paintings, not mine!
Hi – I’ve been thinking about starting a blog for a few years now. But because of the time demand of my job, it was really difficult to do. I tried for a month back in 2016 and it just didn’t work out.
I am giving blogging another try right now. It’s been 3 months and so far so good. It is still somewhat challenging to juggle blogging with my job. But, in the past 3 years, I was able to build some location and time flexibility in my job. This allows me more time to spend on the blog.
Congrats on the blog! It’s a lot of work for sure but can be very rewarding too!
This is so accurate. My life is actually more full and busier now that I don’t work full time, because I’ve had the space to fill it with other things.
Full and busier in a good way of course 🙂
“Not only were my paintings horrible…” your phrase, just the beginning of that sentence, gave me the best laugh I’ve had today. Great advice though. I think a lot of people secretly think they’d be great at something that they’d probably suck at, if they ever tried it, ha ha, myself included. I’m going to budget some time on my calendar to do exactly the sort of exploration you’ve recommended here. Thanks.
Glad I could make you laugh. And trust me, I have nothing in common with Monet 😉
This is true as you begin your career and when you come to the end of it. Young people need to explore lots of different jobs, volunteer work and other experiences to help them determine what type of career to go into. Older people who are coming to the end of their career need the chance to try different things out while still working, to see what they might like to do more of in retirement.
Great post! David Letterman looks like he might take up a Santa gig with that beard. 🙂
That’s what I thought – maybe he’s doing the shopping mall gigs at Christmas!
Finding time for myself with financial independence was the greatest gift I could have given myself. I am thankful I am young enough to get out and try new things. It is important that you are sharing this message and more people need to wake up and realize that the clock is ticking.
Thanks Chris, and you’re spreading the same message, but in a cooler place 😉
I can relate to the question in a slightly different way. I had never slept enough hours or very well in general until just over 2 years ago. Once I started sleeping almost everything became more clear. I could question why I was doing what I was doing. And everything changed for the better.
In a way, I was functioning like Letterman before; work, eat, try to sleep but fail, distract myself from not sleeping so I wouldn’t go crazy. Now I’m, spending my time with people more, am not irritable, am able to plan even more, and enjoying the journey along the way to FI.
For people who just go through the motions working too hard; dang. Not cool in most cases I’m guessing. It feels so good to think more clearly.
So awesome to hear how you changed things. Lack of sleep is a big health issue so kudos to you!
Wow, great post Dave! You’re dead on here! Most people don’t have the time or the energy to really develop interests and skills outside of their job. Hell, half my neighbors hardly have the time to do proper yard maintenance.
It’s a shame that people’s lives are mostly about work. Folks are missing out on living.
They just hire people to do simple yard work for them, keeping them further away from FI. Sigh…
I was a huge fan of Letterman growing up too and loved his top 10 lists.
His point regarding energy is one of the reasons why I would like to retire early. Have to have a balance between money and physical ability. If your physical health declines it doesn’t matter how many zeroes you have in your bank account.
The old top ten list, great stuff!
Such a great point! And it doesn’t have to necessarily be about retiring early (because then in some instances, you’d have to kill yourself MORE to earn enough to retire early), but about finding balance while you are working. I know SOOOOOO many people who are absolutely miserable in their jobs but are waiting…waiting on this, waiting on that to FINALLY pursue hobbies, interests, etc. To me that sounds horrible and yes I want to earn good money, but I also know that tomorrow isn’t guaranteed.
“Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed”… that says it all Tonya!
This post is timely for me as I’m weighing up whether to go part time at work next year. I was thinking of clawing back more time, buy yes- more energy would be a goof thing too.
*but
*good
In my defence, it’s 5:20 AM here and I’m in bed on the laptop. No coffee drunk as yet…
Ha no worries, I’m not a grammar/spelling nazi! Now drink that coffee 🙂
I guess I’m lucky because my job is pretty flexible. So I even get to work on my blog a bit during the day (and/or screw around on Twitter under the guise of doing it for the blog). I think it’s great to save some energy (if you can) to do what you care about. And if you can retire early, then it’s great to be sure you’re retiring to something. Preferably multiple somethings in case that first something doesn’t work out.
You are lucky, I can’t get to WordPress or anything while at my job. Plus I’d get in trouble if I was using work resources to (try to) make money on the side
This is awesome! So many people I know get so caught up in work. They have no hobbies or interests and they say they are too tired to do anything else…i Pity them. I always take time to do things I love and try something new!
“I pity the fool!” – Mr. T.
Love it! We absolutely have to set aside time and energy to get to know ourselves and what we like. It’s so easy to let everything else take priority.
By the way, I’ve always hated oil painting. It’s so messy, and the turpentine smells awful! You might try charcoal, if you’re still artistically inclined. It’s my favorite to work with.
Thanks, I just might try charcoals one day!
I’ve definitely seen others who have struggled to find life after retirement for the same reasons Dave Letterman had. Particularly for the older generations, work was life and it defined life. They didn’t seek work/life balance and it shows. I’ve had times in my career where I struggled with having time to do anything beyond eating, sleeping, working and showering. It was miserable! But I had no choice. Unless I wanted to quit, which I wanted some days. That’s over, hopefully for good! Life’s too short to not have time to enjoy it and discover new things.
I think we’ve all had those times, the key is to not let them go on for too long. There’s a time and place for crushing it at work, but it shouldn’t dominate your life for too long.
Curious if I’m being naive, but my retirement plans call for lots of travel (ie, 3 months or so per trip so we can experience life as a local), catching up on tons of reading, learning at least 1 new language (and hopefully 2), lowering my golf handicap to whatever I can get it to while I can still hit it well, exercising as a routine vs a sporadic focus, taking the CFP coursework and volunteer to help my community with financial planning, make sure my kids and close family (brothers and their kids) are ok, and doing it all with my wonderful wife who I was a couple with for only a very short time before I was a parent with her.
Yet, I continue to hear the same cautions about ‘what are you going to fill all the time with?’. I know full well the best laid plans sometimes don’t come to pass, but I’m at the stage as of this year where my investment income would match my salary. I want to work another 1-2 years, 3 max, to provide a cushion against timing risk and then dive – enthusiastically – into retirement at 60-61. Am I being obtuse, or am I most likely worrying about nothing?
Sounds to me like you’l never be bored. I think some of the people who feel “bored” in retirement find that fun things aren’t doing enough fo them and they want to do meaningful things. Personally I have plenty of both that I’d like to do.
One of the best things people can do for themselves is take care of their health. The way one lives for their first
50-60 years will determine to a great extent how they will function in their retirement years. Your Health Is Your Wealth
is so true.
As I always say, you only get one body. No trade ins.
Another thing that’s difficult about shifting gears from traditional work to new things — hobbies, creative activities, learning new skills — is that you’re inefficient and often need down time. I know that I need more space in my schedule when I do creative things. This is very counter to the go-go, Type A environment of many workplaces. It took a few years after leaving my corporate job to get used to not having to be busy every minute and still feel productive.
Very true, great point. So many nights I would be home and would want to try something but just went through the motions because I was an inefficient zombie. Awesome comment!
This rings very true for me. Some things I would like to do but don’t seem to have energy for are learning to play an instrument and actually using my sewing machine. I often tell myself “Oh I’ll get to it later.”
I hear ya… “later” seems to never come.
Hi Dave,
Nice article and right on the nose! We gotta try stuff out before we grow too indifferent to try new things!
I experienced this a few months ago, when I learned about fantasy map making. I bought some drawing pens on a whim, just as you with your painting set. Even though I had no drawing experience whatsoever and I didn’t know whether I would keep at it, I wanted to give it a try.
Well, I had to fight through a lot of insecurity and self-doubt, but it’s now been almost half a year and I’m still at it :). Even though I have a “real” job, I always make sure to make time in the week-end for my hobby. After all, I gotta make sure I’m good at something other than my job for when I retire in a few years!
Don’t be afraid to try new things. The hardest part is getting started!
I’m a cartographer but I know little about fantasy maps. I’ve read about the trend and it sounds interesting, a very unique hobby!
I’m just beginning my FI journey but like many people who start out I went hyper-intense. Started working 60-70 hour weeks and after 16 months that became my new baseline.
But in that time I saved up a substantial amount of money compared to anything I’ve ever had in my life. I would spend my free time clicking around on redfin and Facebook marketplace looking at homes, dreaming, until one day I was like “wait a minute…” and realized I could actually go forward on that dream.
Bought very cheaply (of course). Home was livable, but very “meh” when I bought it. Besides the fact it was 4x the size, it didn’t feel any different than the cheapest of the cheap apartments I had been living in for years. So I took a weekend off work (gasp!) to start remodeling and make it feel nice.
Turns out I don’t know the first thing about remodeling a house. Guess you can’t scrape ceiling texture, mud over wall texture, fix joint tape, sand, primer, paint, and then reinstall molding on a whole house in 2 days. And who knew you needed to many different tools? So a weekend became a week. Then a week became 2.
This was my first break from work in 16 months, besides the one Saturday a month I afforded myself off so that I could recharge. I had forgotten what it felt like to wake up because there was someTHING I wanted to do instead of someWHERE I had to be. While it was tough to get myself back to the 4am wakeups and 60 hour weeks right after that, it was an amazing reminder about just WHY I’m doing this.
That whole home buying process was exciting. Neither I nor the seller used an agent. I negotiated an AMAZING deal (closed with 6% down on the loan but 30% equity), and I had so much fun from the first time I saw it, through the inspections, and all the way up to signing the documents (I love paperwork). I always thought I liked real estate, but now I know I do. And just like your comment about oil paints, I thought I’d like remodeling – now I know I don’t (I like it, I just don’t like doing it quickly).
(Un)fortunately, that home was destroyed by a tornado 9 days after I finished my first round of remodeling. Cost to repair everything exceeded the appraised value, so my loan got paid off and I received a massive (to me) check for the difference.
A month ago I was excited to have my first rent house, and begin saving for the second. Now I’m in a position where I can purchase 4 or 5. And I know this is the path I want to take.
It’s strange how quickly things can change.
Wow, what a story! Honestly, sounds like you have some great material for a FIRE blog, it’s all about stories and you have a great start here. I mean, a tornado, that’ll draw readers in.
Good luck with your journey!