Life by the numbers
Introduction
“I don’t have enough…” is how it almost always starts when you begin digging into the root cause of the discontent many of us (myself included) feel when we really examine our situation (or predicament as it may be).
I’m Dave, a long serving Software Engineer and father of two. For someone who has a mild fascination with numbers and data I must admit I have lost count of how many times I heard someone say “I don’t have enough” usually followed by at least one of three things. Money, time or motivation.
The moment…
At one time or another I have found myself in a position of struggle with one or more of these commodities and then I realised something, I had no data to support my feelings on any of those items. One evening while watching “The Martian” (I won’t spoil the plot) the phrase “do the math” seemed to get lodged in my brain and wouldn’t leave. I realised my feelings in each of these areas were almost inconsequential and that all that really mattered was the cold hard facts. I started my journey to apply data gathering and analysis to improve my own situation in each of these areas and largely succeeded. Not only did I find I actually had “enough” of each of these things, I had them in greater excess than I had ever realised.
So what did I do next…
I harnessed the data and made it work for my benefit…. for a whole year. I started with money to reduce my anxiety and free up my emotional bandwidth. With money taken care of I moved onto time, then motivation. The outcome of this journey is that now I am able to share what worked for me and may work for you dear reader. As a result of being in control of my money, time and motivation (though I prefer to say effort) I started living my life by the numbers and put together this three part story for you. I intend to release all three parts shortly but wanted to share with you as soon as possible. I hope you enjoy!
