Carrot sandwiches, anyone?

Nom nom nom ... tastes like opportunity 

Something I've been thinking a lot about recently is at what point can one be satisfied with having lived a 'good' life? Is there a universal bucket-list, and in the long view is it as acceptable to spend your whole life in a single town as it is to be a global butterfly?

Oh dear, that's not a good start ... two lines in, and both end with question marks. Unlike so many other eternal blogs, I don't claim to be the fountain of eternal knowledge. Rather, you can visit here to think about some of the same problems which I'm tackling, and if you reach a divergent conclusion please share it in the comments section.

To go back to my original point, how many times a day do you ask yourself what it'll take for you to be happy? If you're anything like me, you'll find that ultimate happiness is that elusive carrot on a stick: forever just around the corner.

For me, it's a question of 'I just want to do *this* with my career, and *that* with my budget, then I want to move *here* and give *this* to my wife.' The variables keep on being just that: annoyingly variable.

[Edit: As a master-class in this principle, this article is pretty thought-provoking. Everything I'm describing is just a sign of the times ... maybe we'd better zig when we're told to zag]

Why, now, am I making my life so difficult by wanting to emigrate? I'm sure that many would-be emigrants face this same go/no go decision, and even when you've crossed the tipping point you still spend a substantial amount of time kicking yourself for biting off one of the biggest challenges around.

Even at this point I can skip forward to 'Ok, so I'm in Romania. What now?' Knowing myself, I can't help wondering how long it'll take me to be want to move onto something bigger than wherever I find myself. 'Bigger' here doesn't necessarily mean a bigger city: as I'm planning to start off in Bucharest I'll in all likelihood consider moving to Romania's coast at some point. There's just something about the sea you can't beat for peace.

At 27 years old I'm not 'old' by any means, but I definitely find that the older I get the more I realise I'm still so far away from the end of this game that it gets pretty exhausting. At that point the optimist in me flips things around to be pretty in awe of the limitless opportunities: and I'm pretty grateful of being able to see that opportunity. So many people don't have aspirations beyond upgrading the size of their television screen, and that's a truly scary fate for me.

It's ironic: in business we're all working professionals, and ask any business leader about their company's long-term vision and chances are they can go into some pretty precise detail. Ask those same business leaders if they know for certain what they want to do the following year in their personal lives, and you're going to be met with a blank stare.

I'm going to take a page from business here, and start thinking seriously about what I want for my long-term happiness. I'll still be hunting opportunity, but at least I'll be hunting with more focus ... increasing my chances of one-day reaching out and taking a huge bite out of that damn carrot!