Jeremy Phillips

So I’ve finally put together some goals for 2009. It’s taken me awhile but better late than never. In no particular order…

1. Get Healthier – I’ve already started eating (somewhat) healthier but aim to quit smoking once and for all as well as getting out and exercising.
2. Tech Consolidation – This one is probably a little out of left field for anyone who knows me. I’m trying to simplify my life so I’m going to be getting rid of all my servers and consolidating down to a single Windows Home Server. I’m also eventually going to give the $600 paperweight that is my laptop to my wife and turn her current laptop into a kitchen table laptop for general family use – which it essentially is already. This relates to item 4.
3. Become More Frugal – Honestly I was quite good at this at one time thanks to my father’s influence growing up. However the past few years have been one step forward, two steps back. I wrote a blog post awhile ago that touched on this and I feel I’ve been very out of touch with my goals here.
4. Simplify My Life – Although I’ve made some great steps in simplifying my life by quitting traveling and such I still haven’t achieved exactly what I want. I guess it would help if I knew what I wanted, but I’ll get there somehow…
5. Get Outside – I have a 12′ pop-up trailer in my parent’s driveway still that I intend on using heavily this year. I also want to get out on at least two overnight hikes and use the many thousands of dollars of backpacking gear I have.
6. Figure Out What I Want To Do When I Grow Up – For some reason I feel like I’m finally ready to take this step. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m turning 30 in less than six months or maybe it’s the fact that I’ve spent the last 15 years hopping all over the damn grid. I’ve made pretty good money from it but I’ve also come to realize that money isn’t nearly as important as people think it is. I’m going to start thinking about what I want out of life and run with it…

A barber knows how to cut a man’s hair. If you’re like most men these days, you’re probably going to some unisex chain salon like Supercuts. I used to do it too. Most of the time, I’d walk out of these places with a crappy haircut. Sometimes, my haircut would look decent for the first week or so, but then it would grow out into a horrible bowl.

The problem is that many of the people who work at salons are not trained barbers. They’re cosmetologists. The difference between the two can spell the difference between a dopey-looking haircut and a great one.

via Why Every Man Should Go To A Barber Shop | The Art of Manliness.

We had a pretty laid back new years eve celebration this year. Zach came over and we watched some movies, drank some champagne and lit some firecrackers on the back deck. I’m hoping 2009 will be a much more exciting year than 2008 was. I must admit it’s been strange and somewhat unsettling to work in the same place every week.

Once upon a time I ate powdered potato soup for breakfast, lunch and dinner for thirty seven days straight. It was worth it.

Being poor is people who have never been poor wondering why you choose to be so.

Being poor is knowing how hard it is to stop being poor.

Being poor is seeing how few options you have.

Being poor is running in place.

[ LINK ]

It’s been one year since my first blog post and I’m actually still posting. This is a new record for me. I’m enjoying it more and more lately, so I’ll probably actually increase my posting frequency. There’s just something fun about sharing your life with the world.

It recently occurred to me that I have been living back in the Seattle area for over a year now. Initially this was quite shocking and I couldn’t figure out where the time had gone. The difference is the lack of travel I think. With the time I put into my job combined with three very active children at home my time is scarce enough that the only time I have free starts at about 9pm and ends when I wake up at 7am. When I was traveling so much, I rarely had much to do and the days seemed to drag by at times.

So much has changed in the past year that I’m curious what I will be doing at this time next year.

This is something I can definitely identify with…

I am going to change the world.

Really… I am.  I can be anything I want to be.  A CEO, an Entertainer, an Olympic Gold Medalist; whatever I work towards I can acheive.

I was 5 years old when I first said that, and society reaffirmed me, you told me “yes, you can be whatever you want to be, you’re special.”  But now, because I’m in my early twenties, if I say those words, I’m cocky and arrogant.

Read the whole entry here: [ LINK ]

Just read a very good blog entry by Matthew Moran on the choices he has made in his career and finances to achieve a better quality of life. I completely agree with his statement that “Time & Options are the quality of life barometers I wish to use.”

Personally though, I am taking a different path to achieve the same goals. When I left the consulting world to get a ‘real job’ in December of last year I took a tremendous pay cut – over 55% – and am slowly working to get back to where I was in remuneration for my time and expertise. However, this has given me back the two things that I was dearly missing – Time & Quality of Life. There are some people I know who are willing to make the sacrifice of time now to achieve a better quality of life in the future and while I respect their decision I tried it, found it wasn’t working and am now taking a different path.

If you have been questioning your quality of life lately, I would suggest taking two minutes out of your day and reading Mr. Moran’s blog entry. Start thinking about what choices you are making now and how they will affect you twenty years from now, you may be surprised at some of the realizations you come to. :)

I’ve been involved in owning, starting and/or managing businesses one way or another for the last 10 years. By working 60 hour weeks I’ve managed to push my salary well into the six figures within the last two years. Now, I find myself wondering whether it’s all actually worth it. Have I been brainwashed by the cult of consumerism to believe that material things equal happiness? Yes, I think I have.

I’ve spent the last decade of my life yearning for material things that don’t… really… matter. While my salary is well above average I still find myself living an average life. We no longer live above our means as we used to but we still live just within our means. We’ve never really bothered tracking where our money comes from or goes, we just spend whatever we want whenever we want, never thinking about the long term cost of anything.

These thoughts first entered my mind last fall, but I didn’t want to listen to them. I continually made excuses as to why I couldn’t play catch with my son, why I couldn’t have a tea party with my daughters or why I couldn’t even find the time or patience to have a conversation with my wife. I believe I started traveling so much primarily to avoid these thoughts.

What worries me the most about this situation I find myself in is that children accept all that they are taught without question. By extension of my actions and belief patterns my children have been baptized into the cult of consumerism. This saddens me greatly but I believe they are still young enough to escape from these belief patterns…. as long as I can escape them myself.

So I’ve decided to lead a simpler life. I have no grand plans yet, nor even small plans, but I am dedicated to achieving this. I will chronicle my quest on this blog in the hopes that it will help someone else escape from The Rat Race. I hope you, dear reader, enjoy the ride as much as I surely will.