Early-retirement wannabe

chucknorris wrote: »

Being competitive doesn't necessarily involve exercise, I remember when I was a student, a fellow student saying to me that he wasn't competing with me, and my response was something like, "maybe not, but I am definitely competing with you, competition allows us to reach the best that we can do of us". I eventually got a first class honours degree and I was the top student of my year, despite starting as a very afraid mature student, without many prior qualifications.

Strangely, I also received a first (and was top student of my year). But then we mature students had a rather large advantage didn't we? - life experience, disciplined work ethic, organisational skills, time management, blah de blah.

At no point did I consider myself in competition with fellow students; the challenge was to reach a benchmark I set myself. It's not as if a single first was on offer and it was always awarded to the top-performing student. A first was awarded to all students who reached the required level. There were two awarded in my year and zero the year prior.

I found university a frighteningly challenging, but soothingly uncompetitive, experience.

You don't need to be competitive to succeed in life, you simply need to understand the link between effort and reward and that effort tends to be driven by self-motivation.

The thought of following any form of exercise 'regimen' is an anathema to me. I prefer the unstructured, impromptu type. I like walking - but only in natural landscapes and definitely not in the rain. I like swimming and sailing - but I'm a fine-weather advocate of both. I'm not sure I would have the time to schedule such an exercise programme in-between the domestics, gardening, decorating, family, volunteering and my eclectic range of interests (not least this forum).

Lost count of how many times I've been up/down those stairs already today.

Regimens, schedules and competition in retirement? Not me guv. Sounds far too much like a description of my working life.

chucknorris wrote: »

Being competitive doesn't necessarily involve exercise, I remember when I was a student, a fellow student saying to me that he wasn't competing with me, and my response was something like, "maybe not, but I am definitely competing with you, competition allows us to reach the best that we can do of us". I eventually got a first class honours degree and I was the top student of my year, despite starting as a very afraid mature student, without many prior qualifications.

Indeed it doesn't necessarily mean exercise. I run a small haulage business with 25 staff and have done for 27 years- depends what stats you look at, but we are the sector that has the highest or closest to the highest, business failure in the UK. I could have a much larger firm, but I'm actually picky who I work for and that isn't just based on the profit margin. I do have the highest staff retention within my small sector of haulage and by industry standard I am way above the average. I'm not sure that counts as being competitive, but it's how I define the success of my business.

Terron wrote: »

Usually there are lots of nice walks to chose from where I live, but for the last week I have been mostly satying indoors with the windows shut.

Yesterday, I did a hilly 85 mile ride in the Yorkshire Dales, on a recumbent bike that I've barely used for three years, in temps pushing 30C in the shade (and I had no shade).

Indoor with windows closed would have been wiser!

gadgetmind wrote: »

Yesterday, I did a hilly 85 mile ride in the Yorkshire Dales, on a recumbent bike that I've barely used for three years, in temps pushing 30C in the shade (and I had no shade).

Indoor with windows closed would have been wiser!

Especially if you local moors were on fire like the ones near me