Before Downshifting

A look at how to go about downshifting and what to expect

There are various options in downshifting; you are changing your full time job for a less stressful full time job or you are kind of 'dropping out', leaving the rat race to search out a better way of life.

Unavoidable Downshifting!

Sometimes downshifting is forced upon us. There are occasions when redundancy may suddenly jump out the blue at the age of 'over 40' and the chances of getting an equivalent job with the same earnings get lesser by each year. Sad, but in the main, true.

In any of the above situations, it is something which needs to be planned and without any doubt at all, supported by the family. When you 'drop', they drop with you.

So I think that first, you have to ask 'why' are you doing this. Sometimes it can be just a spate of bad luck or stressful times in your existing job, so you have to look at the option of simply changing your career path to something with the same hours, same pay but better times outside of work.
There is a perception that downshifting is selling a house in town and moving to the country with a bit of land where you will tend to your livestock and spend the rest of the time knitting jumpers and making crotchet bed quilts.
Maybe this is your dream, if so great and go for it.
But for many it's simply getting a less stressful job in which you can spend more time at home with the family and more time doing your own thing.

Questions to be asked

So, questions to be asked are; What is my main purpose in life ? Do material things really matter to me ? What will I achieve through doing this ? Have I an alternative plan should it not work out ?

So the 'why ?' is your very own personal reason. If you are more middle aged, there is a chance that the way out should it not work for you will diminish. This would make it compulsory downshifting rather than voluntary.
The 'why' should not be simply a way out from something but a positive move toward something. Bit like an election where we vote for a particular political party, not because we want that particular party to win, but simply to get the existing one out. Is that the answer ?

Once you've downshifted, it's often not easy to reverse it.

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Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it. Dalai Lama

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