I’m someone who tends to think ahead. Maybe a little too ahead…
I think this mainly comes from the fact that I like to think of my life as one big game. This is definitely visible in my self-improvement blog, Level Every Day, and sprinkled pretty heavily throughout this personal blog. Objectives, Quests, Skills, Levels, etc; are just the simple gamification terminology I need to get really excited about tackling things in life.
So be it no surprise, I decided to make something called “Stages of Life”. Much like chapters in a book, or acts in a movie, the stages are simply sections of my game’s story. As of writing this, I have progressed through many stages of life to lead me to be a college graduated desk jockey. I could be at stage 68 or 419, but I am considering all that to be Stage 0 – The Tutorial Stage.
My entrance into Stage 1 starts now, as of starting this blog. Each stage will have its long-term theme to it, which will heavily influence how I approach my current goals in life.
In order to avoid excessive detail/redundancy, I will only give a short summary of each stage’s purpose. and general goals. This is also to avoid overplanning. A much more thorough breakdown can be found on my 5-Year Project Goals Page.
Last Revised: August 22nd, 2022
Stage 0 – Tutorial Stage
Purpose: This stage is largely focused on building everything needed to make a living. There is a limited time to build up the necessary education, skills, and accreditation to secure all that is needed to make a decent living. Enough to where one can choose to comfortably live a life that takes care of necessities and grow to something more.
Status: Completed!
Stage 1 – Grinding
Purpose: Finances tied to my current job are a huge safety net, that helps fund projects, but mentally limit my ability to leave for something less stable. If I leave my job, I can’t easily build up skills that require money. If I stay solely focused on my job, I will be going down a very narrow pathway that will not allow me to accomplish all my big life goals. This stage will be focused on taking the time to build up the necessary skills, armor, and revenue to move onward to grander adventures.
The Plan:
- Build accreditation to switch to a different job field.
- Create passive income, and generate savings to be temporarily “unemployed”.
- Fund Quest areas in life(Musical, Language, Physical, Mental), to create a strong foundation and advanced understanding to continue skill-building independently.
Status: In-Progress
Stage 2 – Adventure
Purpose: With enough money and skill-building completed, it’s time to take to the road. There are many areas of the world to see and now is the opportunity to see them. Be mindful that while there might be fortunate enough time to travel more in the future, finances and time may get in the way. Best to tackle what can be tackled only at a physical prime part of life.
The Plan:
- Spend at least 6 months focused on vacationing, focused on trips that can’t easily be accomplished while employed(e.g. Trips put to the side due to lack of funding/time, Backpacking tours, etc;).
Stage 3 – Challenge
Purpose: After getting vacationing out of the system, it’s time to take advantage of your time “Unemployed” to develop those big passion projects that have been put on the back burner. Write a novel? Create an RPG? Create short stories? Spend time on that big passion project? Now is the time to do it. It’ll likely also be advisable to start taking up a job both as a way to earn some cash and more as a way to help work a job you truly wanted but wasn’t financially possible. Be it working at a park, or being a teacher.
Stage 4 – Purpose
Purpose: This is the pathway that will be the major next chapter in the career journey. It could take years to accomplish this one and will utilize the skills and experience taken from previous stages. The goal is to help a non-profit earn $10 Million, specifically targeting an area that is largely underserved. Other quests can be focused on passively, but they can be the far easier challenges in life.
Stage 5 – Retire
Purpose: When Stage 4 is completed, the long-term purpose will feel fulfilled. Hopefully, by this stage, there will be no longer the overarching feeling of needing to do this. Instead, retirement can be sought after, and the rest of the Quests left unfinished in life can be the final focus.