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I'll Be Happy When...

In Marshall Goldsmith's Mojo, he refers to what is called The Great Western Disease. The Great Western Disease afflicts anyone who says or thinks the phrase, "I'll be happy when..." And then fills in the blank. 
Admit it. We all do it which means that we're all afflicted. 
I used to think that there was a certain dollar amount that I needed to make in order to be happy. But as P Diddy and Biggie say, "Mo' money. Mo' problems." I think to some degree that it's true that the more you make, the more you want. What a vicious cycle.
It's been a few months since I left a fairly lucrative job at a large consulting firm. I haven't bought a new pair of shoes in a while. My wardrobe is a little dated. I let my wife drive the nice car while I drive the one that's paid off. But we are still able to eat. My son has more than he needs. And I paid more for him last year to go to school then my parents paid to send me to college. All in all, we are still okay. 
Now that I have had a lot of time to think (and read), I have come to the conclusion that I like the thought of being an entrepreneur. I just don't like the thought of the risk that's involved. I have a conservative personality with risk taking dreams - talk about frustrating. 
The one thing that I have not done is completely disrupt myself. I'm not the management consultant that said, "screw it," and then became a full time high school soccer coach. But if I think about the best time of my life, it's when I coached a U14 soccer team in Michigan while working on a client engagement. 
My thought is that there are a lot of us in industry that do what we do because we feel like we have to do it. Therefore we sacrifice our happiness and more or less compromise. But as I approach the age of 40, I realize that life is too short to not do the things that really juice you. Given the deaths in the news lately of people that have left lasting legacies, the reality that life is precious becomes all too real.
My 30's flew by because I was on the road giving my time to the corporate and firm gods. Now I'm off the road giving my time to the corporate gods with a different firm's gods ready to pounce on me. 
Who knows? That high school soccer coaching job might just be in my future yet.

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