A Look at Work/Life Balance
The binary solutions for work/life balance in climbing tend to be one of the following:
The Lifer
The lifer pursues climbing at all expense and makes ends meet as best as they can. The lifer participates in seasonal work or other flexible jobs that provide an income capable of sustaining life, but allowing for little to no saving for the long term. Individuals on this path are reluctant to place any roots: careers, property, family, long-term relationships. These individuals experience unparalleled freedom, but may harbor deep-seated concerns about their financial future after the youthful years.
The Optimizer
The optimizer pursues a career and climbs as much as they can in the margins. This is where most of us fall in modern climbing. We have careers, we may have children, perhaps even own a home. As life demands increase; careers develop, children enter the equation, climbing progressively gets shoved further towards the back burner.
These are the weekend warriors and the people who fill up the campgrounds on the holiday weekends. There is comfort in that this life is a shared experience with most others; almost anyone can relate. These individuals tend to have much healthier and stable incomes, but also tend to fall victim to lifestyle inflation: As income increases, so does unnecessary spending.
Despite vastly higher incomes, the optimizer’s financial future may be no less secure than the lifer, but they may have lots of nice stuff.
Finding the Balance
The general advice you’ll hear on forums like Mountain Project to balance both a career and climbing are to obviously move closer to areas with good climbing and to perhaps pursue careers like nursing, which allow for flexible schedules. To be clear, this is not bad advice. When Mr. and Mrs. CC moved from Houston, TX to Colorado, one of the major objectives of said move was to be in close proximity to climbing and outdoor activities in general while still earning good salaries in our careers.
While this advice is worthy in tipping the scales more in your favor, you certainly have the ability to leverage exponentially more freedom, while finding much more purpose and value in the lives you live now.
Reconsideration
Let’s get down to brass tacks and ask ourselves some very serious questions:
Is your job your passion?
Do you really want to work in your field until you are 65 years old, finding time for your family and passions on the Saturday/Sunday margins and minimal vacation time?
Research has shown that 13% of the US workforce is passionate about their jobs, so easy math here, there’s an 87% chance that you’d probably rather be spending your 40+ hours a week elsewhere. Even if you are in that 13% bracket, wouldn’t it be nice to know that you can act freely in your career without the fear of having enough money to fund your current and future life?
The CC family most certainly falls into the 87% bracket: Not only have we found ourselves less than passionate about our jobs, we’ve at times found them completely loathsome, with very real external effects on our health and well-being. A stressful job spills over after 5 pm; patience runs thin, you can’t sleep, your thoughts are enveloped by workplace drama. Sound familiar? For 87% of us, it probably sounds very familiar.
At some point, we’ve all justified the existence: Work may not be a dream job, but we all have to do it. For some, it’s a necessary evil. For others, they may love their work, but still may not sleep soundly when considering financial security.
Good news!
Here’s the good news: Depending on your income, you can leave your “less-than-passionate” job in a drastically abbreviated timeframe, and in theory, never make another dollar if you so choose. You can very literally retire early, and you don’t have to be a high-income earner to do it. It’s happening all over the world, even in the outdoor community.
If you love your job, stay, but at least relish in the comfort that your financial future is as close to guaranteed as possible. Work that dream job that pays half of your living expenses, because frankly, you can. Check back for Part 2 in the series to learn more on specific steps to get you there.