I read an author who had simplified his life significantly. Unlike others, he gave specifics in terms of his financial situation. He claimed that most people could live on approximately $10,000./year per family member. He and his spouse with one child downsized from over $100,000./ year to $30,000. And he claimed life had never been better.

Our family had two parents, a grandmother and a middle-school aged daughter. I could not see us living on $40,000, so, for some reason, I added another $10,000. To sweeten the deal. I asked my family if we could “try” to do this for one year so if I decided to leave the corporate world, I would know if we could survive financially.

We did just that, and honestly I was amazed at how little our lives were affected by this “belt tightening”.

Sometimes weighing the cost of money in our lives makes way for a hairpin turn.

I walked down the hall with another person and asked rather casually “how has your day been thus far?” She replied: “falling apart.” When I asked “how so?” she told me that her boss had been transferred and that she was sure she was going to lose her job. She had been on the phone for several hours the previous night and all morning trying to find out what happened, and what might happen next. She was doing a lot of guessing. Then, right before the meeting began, she summarized: “All I want to do is hang on for two more years until retirement!”.

I understand the panic when there is change. I too, have a strong impulse to download the gory details about “what happened” in order to defend against some imagined future. I know I can waste time and energy anxiously predicting the future and totally missing right now. I wonder what might happen if I take some of that “guessing” energy about the future, and put it toward full engagement in my work and relationships this day? And I wonder what would happen if, during any change at work or home, we turned to one another and openly talked about what was happening?

Making a hairpin turn somehow involves a willingness to share information—even when in the middle of the turn.