My life has been a whirlwind lately. Not exactly a Penelope Trunk type whirlwind, but to me, it feels like my life is changing faster than I can adjust. And I hate change. I drag my feet in the face of it. My wife will tell you it’s very difficult to get me to change anything without lots of kicking and screaming. So you can imagine how I feel about going through multiple life changes at once: new job, new city, wife’s new job, different place(s) to live, Stringer Bell getting killed on the episode of The Wire I just saw, etc. I’ll tell you exactly how I feel – I love it.
Granted, I’m not that far along through the changes. Maybe the newness and excitement will wear off, and I’ll become just another guy trudging off to work and watching the clock, but so far, I just feel really happy. It just feels really right. Change in my life has trended that way the last several years. Every change that I feared or resisted, has simply resulted in my life getting better. I have an uncle that once told me, “you know Todd, every stage of my life has just gotten better and better.” That’s how I feel right now.
Right about the time I decided to go to law school I had a business idea brewing. Financing for the idea was within reach, and I think it’s something I could have made a decent living at and been happy doing (I might still, someday). Of course, I had to decide between staying in my hometown and pursuing that one idea, or leaving to attend law school. I opted for law school. It was scary, but I was ready to experience and try something new. It ended up being a great decision. I met my wife, Rachel, there, and I honestly believe she has made my life better than it could ever have been without her. Plus, I had the opportunity to study the law. That truly is a privilege. I think law school could also be called, how the world works school. It’s an opportunity to see how much there really is that to know that you don’t know. It was a change that I needed, and it has forever changed the course of my life.
Even knowing that lots of change ends up making your life fuller, I’m still resistant to it. I still fear it. So today, I wrote down five things I’m actively going to change about myself. Things I picked that I think can be better. They’re basically mid-year New Year’s Resolutions. I’m not going to share them, because they’re fairly personal, and I’ve resisted Penelope Trunking my life on the blog thus far (though hers is one of my favorites, so maybe I should emulate). I will say, that I think embracing change can enrich your life. Without changing you can’t get and worse, but you certainly can’t get any better, either. If change is hard for you, think of those changes as growing pains. If you can get through them, you’ll walk taller, and you’ll never view the world from quite the same (heighth) perspective again. Thanks for reading.
The Personal Finance Playbook also was included in two blog carnivals this week, The Festival of Frugality at My Frugal Adventures and The Money Hacks Carnival at Canadian Personal Finance. Check them out if you get a chance. I’ll be hosting the Money Hacks Carnival here on my blog next Wednesday.
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#1 by Chessiq on July 3rd, 2009 - 2:34 pm
It is always nice when you look at your childhood and you have a bunch of sweet memories. It is something to be grateful for.
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It appears I am going to be hooked to Penelope Trunk, thanks to you! She has a very sharp intellect. Of course, people will debate the reasons/wisdom/etc will her “my-life-is-an-open-book-ness”. I have enjoyed what I have read so far.
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Glad you went to law school… Law gained because of it. Your mention that when you go to law school you get to know how the world operates, how much there is to know, how much you don’t know etc has piqued my interest. I doubt that I will ever be a lawyer, but I believe one can adopt some of traits of good practitioners of law and benefit from it.
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Regarding change – I totally agree with you. First off, change is a constant. Everything is changing. Whether one likes it or not, change is happening… to his/her body, to the economy, etc. Forcing yourself to change sometimes gets you ahead of the “change curve”.
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Todd Metheny Reply:
July 4th, 2009 at 9:25 am
Hi Chessiq – I am hooked on Penelope Trunk, too! The posts I like the most are just the post about her, rather than her posts on career advice. I really just think she’s an interesting person and a great writer.
Law school is the best time you never want to have again. I think it ends up being what undergraduate school should be – it’s hard, time consuming, intense, and you learn a lot in a short amount of time. I think law school, for me, was more satisfying in some ways than practicing. Although you get a lot more respect once you’re an actual attorney. And I guess that’s worth something to me. I like learning new things, though, so school was good for that. Of course, it’s opened several other cans of worms. There are now a bunch of new things I want to learn about because I got a taste of them in law school!
That being said, I don’t think I would encourage my kids to go to law school, assuming I have them at some point. Part of me would like to see one of my younger siblings go to law school, because I think I could give them a lot of help career wise (and it’s nice to be able to help). Another part of me thinks there are better and easier ways to do well in life. My little brother is set on being an engineer right now (he’s 15) and I want to encourage that. I think that’s an excellent background for anything you end up wanting to do. My little sister is young and undecided (13) – but she might be the lawyer out of the two of them. I’m rambling. As always, thanks for contributing.
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#2 by Steve on July 5th, 2009 - 9:21 pm
Hey Todd,
I think I can relate/understand the work load in school, and then the benefits/respect of practicing. I am currently studying for, and taking, the CPA exams. Two down, two to go. I finished school way back when, but when you are not a CPA people think you are not a good enough accountant regardless of how well you do your job.
It is nice that you have set a good example to your siblings, even if they don’t become lawyers. I wish I knew what I wanted to be when I was 15! For now, I know I don’t want to be an accountant for the rest of my life. After getting the CPA, I will do some IT consulting stuff like SAP financials or Oracle financials.
Good work with the posts. I have really enjoyed them; learnt a few things along the way. Keep up the good work!
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Todd Metheny Reply:
July 6th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Hi Steve – The CPA exams are supposed to be very tough. I have a friend who just finished those exams not too long ago – I know she spent a lot of time studying and was relieved when she finished. Good luck. Let me know how it goes.
I think consulting is a good way to be self-employed. One thing I’m looking to do with the blog in the future is branch out into interviewing people who have started businesses or are self-employed. I can only imagine that knowing things like SAP and Oracle have to make you very valuable in the market place. If you end up doing the consulting thing on your own, I’d love to ask you some questions about how you go about getting clients.
Do you work for an accounting firm or for a company? Dallas? Maybe SBC?
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#3 by Chessiq on July 6th, 2009 - 7:05 pm
Hi Todd – Glad to hear that you are thinking about branching out and growing your blog. A couple of weeks ago I was “worried” that you would burn out or decide that it was “too much work” or something along those lines. I don’t know what brought up the idea – or why I was worried about it. Anyway, it is good to hear that you will be around for a lot longer.
Yes, I would be honored to be an interviewee for a piece for your blog if things work out for me some day. It may be a couple of years down the road, but God-willing, we both have time.
Gotta go study!
Oh, I work for a company in Dallas. Not SBC, but a consulting firm.
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Todd Metheny Reply:
July 6th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Really? Was it low quality content? I saw my brother-in-law last week and he told me that the content on the blog was going down hill and that I needed to step it up if I was going to keep putting my name on it. I didn’t really realize it, but he’s smarter than I am, so I trust his judgment.
I’m going to try to hang around for as long as I can. I like writing. I like that people read it. I’d like to keep it going. It can be a grind at times. For instance, no post tomorrow. I’m hosting the Money Hacks blog carnival on Wednesday, so I tried to get started on that (that can’t be done in one sitting). I didn’t even get very far, but I think I have a pretty good topic for Thursday. I’m not out of ideas, yet;)
There are a lot of things I would do differently if I had a little more time. I might do a site redesign in the future. For now, the blog is still slowly gathering some readers. That’s satisfying. I’d like to keep writing it as long as people want to read it. It’s an excellent learning device, too. It keeps me looking at things. RJ’s (brother-in-law) big thing was that I did more research in the beginning. I completely agree. I want to get back to posts that have more research in them. It’s hard to find the time. But I’m going to try to get there.
I’m really glad that you read it, and comment often, because it gives me feedback. I can look at numbers and feel some satisfaction, but getting to interact with people who have read it is the best. So thanks for that.
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#4 by Chessiq on July 7th, 2009 - 10:33 pm
Hey Todd – no, it was not low quality content. It was just one of those things that cross your mind and you sort of dwell on it for a little bit without trying to find out why or how you got there in the first place.
Regarding research and other work, and blogging being a grind sometimes, I totally understand/agree; but it is good when it is labor of love, as it appears to be the case (here = in your case).
You will have “off days”, when you just want to write-up something without digging deep/going into research and all that, and that’s okay. I, as a reader of quite a few blogs, like it when I sometimes go to a site, and it is “light” – like, I could have written that in my sleep. So, no pressure. At least not from me. I think you have been doing great – seriously.
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