Sedentary worker syndrom
One day in April 2014, sitting at my desk while enjoying a break between two IT interventions, I got distracted, glancing out the window overlooking the popular Brompton road in the posh district of Knightsbridge in London. Thoughts were fusing. It’s been about 4 years since I entered what we used to call “active life”. Active life? I said to myself … Is this really an appropriate name? Duty cycling all year to finally earn five weeks of holidays per year, have the chance to pay a mortgage over 20 years.
Then, I realized that work deprives us of geographical and financial freedom because whatever happens we must be on our workplace when it requires, ie most of the time.
Deprived of financial freedom, because the ‘happy’ employment contracts owners reinvests the money their employer pays them in exchange for their time to buy a property on mortgage “not too far from their jobs” and in major developed cities, prices are just crazy. It is a downward spiral, the work is mostly found in the city, we go into debt to buy a place to live that is not one. It is the continuity of the workplace, work is requiring you to live at a reasonable and acceptable distance of it. The more you decide to move away, the more you lengthen your everyday commuting time, making you more moaning while dragging your feet on the floor after being awake by your every morning alarm clock.
I already know people who have “blown a bolt” that have decided to ditch their jobs to raise goats in the Larzac (region of France), or to go in holiday for an undetermined duration. But is this a real lead buggery or rather a moment of genius and lucidity? The man who decides to break his chains is seen as a fool by the one which has ankles. Who is the craziest of both?
The first reason we work is to be able to fill the dish and afford a roof on our heads, and if a bit of money is left at the end of the month, we can buy futile and useless things to show-off in front of friends.
The stock phrases from baby-boom people, trying to guide the younger generation on major decisions in their lives are false. Based on their experience, what was true yesterday is not necessarily today:
“Renting is throwing money out of the windows”
“Now you have a job, buy your own property, prices are rising anyway”
“You have to buy now! The credit rates are low and will soon go up!”
Ok ok, wait, I take a step back here. You’re telling me that I must make a credit on 25 years to buy a house in France when:
Unemployment is at its maximum, precarious employment is rising, graduates flees off the country, the retirees also (cost of living too high in France), the Papy-boom is here, the rents are lower and lower, taxes are rising for owners, the over-supply of offer facing the low demand (2.5 sellers per buyer), rent control policies, and property prices that still not fall (enough)?
No !
Then, pushing myself deeper into my seat, I took a breath and thought that real life, this is not like that. Even if I have to lose everything taking risks, entering the game would largely worth the effort. The rewards of success can be really great : true freedom and power of creation.
Dream and fight for it.
Bali is very popular within the French community. And I’ve never set a foot there. Deep inside my seat I imagine myself in a life there. Sun, white beaches, a bowl of fresh tropical fruits and fresh coconut as a daily breakfast. It’s decided, once my contract is finished, I go to live there.
Later at every free moment, I began to think about it and got lost in the image of a place that one has when one thinks of a place without having set a foot there.
Feeling guided, like floating in the air by what we do every day, is only possible we do what we really love… I love nature, I love to go wherever I want whenever I want, I like to try new things, new sports, see new cultures, experiencing new things and learn about the lifestyle in other countries and meet people who share the same vision, the same mission, the same ambition as me.
If I have the chance to be “old” one day, I want to look backwards and say about my life : “That’s what I achieved”
The ecolodge I want to create is a perfect example. There will be plenty of pitfalls, traps, unexpected events, but I will fight to succeed.