Ok, I haven't managed to write a weekly Blog over the Christmas holidays. Please forgive me, Marcus-from-the-past.
However, I have had time to reflect on 2019 and the decisions I've made in the past twelve months. And I'd like to share my thoughts with you...
Around this time 12 months ago we received the information that my wife had the chance to go to Shanghai. I'd been quite nervous about the move and I worried a lot, at least until we've finally moved in July. I worried about my work, about building a family in Shanghai, about being there for my wife if I continued to work in my old job and I handled all the necessary steps to make the move as smooth as possible... let me tell you: we've been in Shanghai for about 6 months now and no, I haven't found solutions for all my worries but as Dale Carnegie mentioned in his book "How to stop worrying and start living!" some worries disappear over time.
To be honest: I haven't had the time to worry much. I've been reading books about psychology, habit-building, investing, stock-trading, work and life principles and many more... I've also been working out and running like a maniac (750 kilometers in four months), started cooking and massively enjoyed having dinner with my wife every evening for the first time in the 15 years we've been together.
I have a lot of time to think about my life and what I want to achieve in 5 or 10 years from now. There is time for housework, reading, studying, writing diaries and journals, blogging, traveling, exploring this great city, learning new languages (Chinese, Swedish and - finally - Finnish), studying the stock market, finally getting a grip on investing and taking care of my mom's family business. Overall, life is very, very, very good!
So what's next? I can't say specifically. I am working on many different things, but my overall goal is to be a self-appreciative, loving husband, I'd love to stay mentally, physically and socially healthy and find ways to provide for my family without having to work within a typical 9-5 time frame. And I'd like to achieve so called primary greatness with utilizing these 12 levers of success: integrity, contribution, priority, personal sacrifice, service, reciprocity, diversity, responsibility, loyalty, learning, teaching and renewal. If you want to learn more about this, go ahead and read the book "Primary Greatness" by Stephen R. Covey. He's the guy that also wrote "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" which is one of my favorite recent readings.
And no, I don't despise working 9-5 or being a "normal employee", I might even return to that model at one point in time, but right now that's just not for me and I am very grateful to have a choice. I have worked my ass of over the past 10 years and I can tell you for certain: I have not been living the best life. No in regards to financial standards, but in regards to my social and physical health. Hording money, getting approval from clients and co-workers, acquiring one project after the other, ... all of that is great, great for the company, but not necessarily great for my health and the overall "me". It's time to be more selfish. That's why I quit and that's why I enjoy living my current life as a homemaker (or "betty" (Br.)), husband, cook, musician, runner, composer, reader, learner, teacher...
Now, that felt good!