Lifestyle Engineering, Culture, And Success

I am a little late in posting this, as I was supposed to write it on New Year's Day. But it is something I have been thinking about a lot.

 Do you feel like you can engineer a lifestyle?

When I was 21, I figured that I would own a decent home outside of Phoenix with a backyard pool after about 10 years. I would be married, have a stable job, go on a few vacations, and drive a convertible sports car. None of those happened. So, why didn’t it? Was it because of some choices I made, or was it the only starter job offer I got after the dot com crash was in Ohio on a contract basis? How much control did I have in the situation? If I had attempted to engineer a lifestyle after working for a few years when I wasn’t as desperate by searching for jobs in Phoenix, does that mean that I am the one who didn’t create the outcome I envisioned as successful? What other aspects of your life can be fixed by actively trying to improve, compared to just being lucky? Or being in the right place at the right time? Meeting the right person because you happened to be at the same event or know the same friend?

The second part of this question is how does culture define success? It seems like the political factions have different visions of what success looks like. And I wonder how they are shifting the entire culture to try to have the most people achieve their version. When it comes to guns, religion, marijuana, and tax structure, it seems like when a political party creates laws that impact these issues, it is a cultural attack on a group of people. Things like this may impact your lifestyle, but you have no impact on it and it can be very hard to create a solution you are happy with in your own life. But, how do you decide what has to be going right in your life to feel successful? When it comes to relationships, I think that is what has changed the most. The big change is whether it more successful to marry your first love and stay married for 50+ years, or is it better to have as many partners as possible until you get the best one of them all?

 

The third part is what is the purpose of it all? How is this improving the world? What will be the legacy that you have contributed to change things for the better? Does this long-term game matter to people, or are they just living life without a plan?

 

The way I think about engineering a lifestyle I would say that my lifestyle is essentially about trade. I would do whatever I could for the customer and the customer should pay for that service. Then I get a million services done perfectly to my liking or people gets fired instantly and I shouldn't need to be on another level to get that done. I would like to take part in actual combat against those who make the world into a worse place.