It has been a while! That is an understatement. I refuse to count the weeks and months that I did not blog. There are many reason why that did not happen. Today I will focus on one: boredom.
I am not saying that blogging is boring or that FIRE is boring. On the contrary, it is an exciting hobby and FIRE/HOT is an exciting journey.
Blogging got me some real life connections that I value a lot. It is great to meet like minded people that share some of the same challenges in life as you. So, blogging to stay engaged is a solid reason.
And yet, I stopped…
Why?
It feels like I lacked the inspiration and motivation to write. I could no longer find an interesting topic to write about. To my feeling, I had written everything that I had to write and I got answers to all my FIRE questions that needed an answer.
Our FIRE plan was in place, it was on auto pilot and boring like hell, just like it should be…! My mind no longer was thinking about the strategy to deploy monthly excess cash, the budget no longer needed finetuning, the happiness vs FIRE goal question was clear.
I also no longer felt the need to track in detail the Amber index. We were on a long road towards FIRE that would take 10-15 years before the end goal was in sight. Tracking this on a monthly basis seemed pointless . I trust our system to pay ourself first and follow our budget. What is the point of having a monthly check point.
All of that seemed to block me from writing content and reading/commenting on other blogs. All seemed clear to me.
Rereading, that really sounds selfish from me.
Maybe…
I no longer got satisfaction from blogging and wondered: is this it? I no longer found joy. My mind was no longer focused on FIRE and blogging. And part of the FIRE mindset is to spend your time on things that make you happy.
So, I stopped…
Until now. There always stayed a small fire (pun intended) inside me that is enthusiastic about the FIRE community, meetups, new insights,… I also started to read blogs from others again.
Let us see where this leads to…
amber tree leaves 
Similar for me. I stopped doing the monthly (public) posts. I still do all the book keeping in private and I’m really looking forward to the end of each month to get to know the difference… 🙂
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You’re right, once you get into autofocus it’s quite boring to post monthy updates (i never did that in the first hand). I encourage you, that now that you don’t need to worry about money (because it’s on autopilot) to reinvent yoursef and make a difference. Change something. Make this world a better place. Join forces with likeminded people, use your skills and solve a problem that needs to be solved! This is where boredom ends and each little achievement brings a huge amount of happiness.
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Welcome back ATL! I understand the lack of motivation given the sheer time scale on getting to FI. Hopefully you find renewed joy in your blogging and if not that’s ok too. Its your journey after all, we are just along for the ride…
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No one says you have to blog every week or every month even. Maybe a quarterly update about your life would suffice???
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Welcome back! It’s lovely to hear from you. As DivHut said, there’s no need for you to blog once a week just for the sake of it – blog when you have something to say, when you feel like writing. Otherwise blogging will just become a horrible chore and you’ll resent it.
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Welcome back ATL, hope you find and maintain the inspiration to entertain & educate a lot of your readers once again. See you soon!
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Great to hear from you. I haven’t been blogging for the past few months or so…. But plan to in the near future, whenever it suits me.
FIRE for me is to disregard anything that needs to be done on autopilot, but just having the freedom to spend time on things that matter on that particular moment. Whatever that may be.
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The great thing about having your own blog is that you set the rules. Don’t feel like doing monthly updates, then don’t!
And I am sure you have still some interesting things to tell us. Ab inbev comes to mind .. Or a calculation how much years of early retirement those youthful trips to Ibiza have cost you and if you still feel it was worth it 😉 You know, fun, light stuff …
+ 10 to 15 years is humbug. I bet you can do it in 5 years ..We probably could do it in 2 years if we make some tough choices (which we do not want to do like finish and sell the house and then move to an even cheaper location in Belgium).
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Hi, welcome back. Out of curiosity: do you still sell options as part of your overall strategy? on another note: how lucrative is blogging on FI? aside from the benefit of being able to exchange ideas with like-minded people, do you actually generate cash flow to fuel your dividend stock portfolio? Contemplating on launching my own blog but wonder – from a financial perspective – what the cash flow generation capacity could be.. thanks
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Welcome back, FIRE is a long walk together, not a race 🙂 Same for blogging, there’s no need to keep up with the writing Joneses!
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Welcome back, we’ve missed you! I’ve been at it for 3 1/2 years, weekly posts. There’s definitely an ebb and flow to the passion, but I’ve found if I power through a few tougher weeks, things get right back on track. Strangely, I’ve never struggled to find a fresh topic to write about. Do whatever works for you, even if it means letting go of the writing. Lifes’ too short to do something that you don’t love.
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