After a relatively straightforward house move, the trials of rural UK broadband took a while to overcome, followed by some unplanned time spent fixing a variety of computer issues. Happily, everything is now resolved, and after a longer than planned break, we are back.
While we’ve been gone we’ve seen a government spending review and it was slightly disturbing to see everyone getting excited about specific cuts before they were even known or announced! In the final analysis, the cuts do not seem as bad as expected, although everyone will have their perspectives on this. We’ll have to see how things play out over the coming years. This got me reflecting on the last few years, and where we are now. The previous UK Government’s mantra was “Spend, spend, spend”. They spent to the point of overspending themselves, and then encouraged you and I to do the same to prop up the economy when it dived off a cliff and they had no reserves to turn too. It strikes me that this is the mindset of the shopaholic who deliberately fails to look at their credit card bill or bank statement. All change come the election, and we now have a coalition Goverment that will tell his this is the age of “Austerity”. They’ve made some spending cuts, and increased some taxes. I call that a start. They could, and over the next few years SHOULD go much further with the spending cuts as the economy improves. Remember when they say “cut”, they mean they will spend LESS of YOUR hard earned money.
In France we see widespread protests over the raising of the retirement age. In Britain, this has happened with barely a voice raised.
As I thought about this over a number of weeks, I came to see this as a wake up call. This isn’t the age of austerity. It’s the age of PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. This is at the core of everything we do to be more self reliant, and to increase our level of Self Sufficiency.
You don’t have to wait until you reach an age that someone else dictates before you retire. If you want to work beyond that date, you are free to do so, and if you want to retire before that date you are equally free to do so. The decision is yours, and yours alone! But to have the opportunity to make that decision yourself you have to take responsibility for your life NOW. It’s easy to blame someone else for our circumstances, “The Government have done this <insert scenario as applicable>”, “THEY have done this..”, “Have you heard what THEY have done now?” (incidentally, who is this “THEY” that people frequently talk about?). We all fall into that trap at times.
The first step on the road to Self Sufficiency is to take personal responsibility. That starts by recognising that however you ended up in your current situation, whatever “THEY” you may blame. YOU are the person who is responsibile for you, and YOU are the only person that can step up and make the changes necessary to get the life you want.
If this all sounds a bit “preachy”, and not what you’d expect from a site focused on Self Sufficiency, then think carefully about what Self Sufficiency really means, and that will help you find the answers you’re looking for. PLEASE think long and hard about specific actions you can take to take more control of your situation, and your life, so you can have more of what you want, and less of what peopel tell you you should have.
