In the beginning...

It all started by asking myself three, simple questions that I will now ask you:

How happy are you? I'm not talking about social media artifice here; I'm talking intrinsic, unmitigated, soulful joy. Be honest with yourself. Are you genuinely happy?

How content are you?

Are you satisfied with your life? With your job? With your partner? Do you feel like you have achieved the status in life that you desired and can enjoy what you have and where you are right now?

How fulfilled are you?

Does you soul still yearn? Are your abilities, talents, and passions being engaged and flourishing?

My answers to these were abysmal. How'd you do?

I was sitting at the bar with my mom drinking and chatting. We were trying to get to the root of my unhappiness and devise a solution. Why was I so dissatisfied with my life? What could I do to make it better, to make me better?

First, you should know a little about me. I am a Critical Care Registered Nurse, an extrovert with a naturally bubbly and sunny disposition. I worked in a Level 1 Trauma and Transplant Center's Pediatric Intensive Care Unit for 15 years. I stepped away from the bedside when the caregiver fatigue became overwhelming. I LOVED what I did, but when it started to hurt to go to work, I knew I needed a change in strategy. I switched to nursing informatics and became a Critical Care clinical consultant for a large healthcare EHR system. My world expanded and I became an elite traveler with a six-figure salary and a nice lifestyle. Having never been married and having no kids, this was a rather lucrative state of being.

So, why wasn't I happy? Let's break it down.

I did enjoy my six-figure salary - not gonna lie. It helped feed my lifestyle. I owned a condo in an exclusive area, wore designer labels, had a crazy Amazon addiction (thanks Buzzfeed Shopping suggestions), and - being a HUGE foodie - ate at the finest restaurants. But with that salary came an enormous amount of stress. Depending on the client, that stress could be nominal or it could drive one to need Zoloft. I was in the Zoloft mode. I wasn't sleeping, I was riddled with anxiety, and I was drinking to unwind.

I decided to assess my life. What I found was that despite all I had, I still felt the need for more. I needed to buy more. My friends were all wealthier than me and I wanted to have the nice things they had: another handbag, a new car, a renovated kitchen. The act of buying things was a heady feeling that produced happy hormones - temporarily. Inexorably, those happy hormones would stop pumping and I was back to feeling empty.

I realized that I needed a fundamental philosophical shift. We are taught to engage in consumerism and materialism from an early age. This keeps us consistently unhappy with our current status regardless of what that status is. Most people are overextending themselves and living beyond their means. A loan officer told me a story of a person with a million dollar house to whom he denied a loan because they were completely underwater. How can a person who can "afford" a million dollar home not live comfortably? I was baffled and decided to change my perspective.

I realized that I no longer subscribed to the rat race that is engrained in us. I no longer wanted to be miserable so that I could overextend myself in an effort to buy my happiness. I did not want my joy to be extrinsic - contrived or coerced; I wanted my joy to stem from an internal fount. In order to do that, I knew I needed to step back. I needed to take myself out of the game, to slow down, and to learn to appreciate life. I started meditating and searching for the joy within myself. I needed to get back to basics.

What I've learned is that the pressure you feel to keep buying more stuff, new stuff, any stuff lessens the truth that it is all just that - stuff. It won't make you happy and, in fact, can shackle you down. What would you prefer? Would you rather: buy a new car with car payments while you show it off as it depreciates over the next few years or put that money in a high yield savings account so it can grow over the next few years? As you re-align the purpose of your purchasing habits, from the immediate gratification and temporary happy endorphins that come with new shoes to the delayed gratification of putting that money away, becoming debt free, and enjoying the lasting endorphins of retiring early and becoming a perma-vacationer sipping a mojito on a sunny beach?

Gratefully, my nest egg has afforded me the opportunity to retire early (40 years old!). Remember that chat I had with my mom at the bar? She decided to join me! So, my dog, my mom, and I are moving to Mexico! This is the beginning of a lot of life lessons, wrong turns, new friends, and adventures. I know not everything will be perfect, but I know I will be happier!

Come with me as I begin this journey - the long haul drive from the East Coast of the USA to the West Coast of Mexico. Take a Leap!