See Shell's Big Plan

Countdown Painting on Wall

THE BIG PLAN

I have always wanted to make my living using only my own creativity, in other words, to not have a real job. Because I work for the State, I have the option to retire at age 55, and that is what I plan to do. Let me put some quotes in there to clarify.

I am going to "retire" from my "real" job in about four years. 

That means I have about four years to figure out how to do it. I have many ideas of how to do this. Some are huge and scary, like maybe I could invest in some combo of store/studio/house/rental space to live and work, and possibly rent out. Other ideas are easily obtainable, an Etsy store is in my near future, we'll see how far that can go. I also have plenty of creative ideas that I want to do, that won't necessarily be monetizable, like stop frame animation, tutorials, and recipes.
This is scary. Scary exciting. I feel like I'm at the top of a roller coaster right now. And I do love a good roller coaster!
In the process of deciding to pursue this Big Plan, I looked into the future to see when my 55th birthday was, exactly. Discovering it conveniently falls on a Friday, the beginning of the Big Plan was born. As long as I was playing with calendars, I counted the working days from the beginning of this year until December 20, 2019, and found it to be 991. Less than one thousand days, that's do-able.
However 991 is kinda big for a countdown, and I really want to have a feeling of where I'm at in the process. Four years with four seasons each is a much more reasonable countdown of sixteen. That is what you see in this photo, my countdown until "retirement." I will mark off each season as it happens, so I will be able to see at a glance where I am in my timeline. Maybe a little crazy, but it works for my brain.
I will share how my process is going here on this little blog. Please join me on my little adventure. Let me know what you think, I'm still in my giant ideas stage, nothing's too crazy to think about.
And join the Scheme Team!