Happiness is a funny thing. It has totally different meanings for different people and some will find it at different stages in their life. I was brought up to believe that you work as hard as you can and sacrifice happiness in order to become financially secure, before enjoying life in your retirement years. Recently, upon completing my university degree, I have been doing a lot of thinking as to what to do next. While the short term goal is to go travelling to North America with Josh next year, the idea of a 9 to 5 office job once I get back doesn't really appeal to me.
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| I am never so certain as to what I want in life as I am when I am on the river. |
I am fortunate enough to find myself in a position where I could possibly make a living out of something I truly love to do, fly fishing. While I would certainly not earn anywhere as much as I would becoming a lawyer, the outdoor lifestyle and guaranteed happiness would more than make up for this. We can spend a lot of our time living up to other peoples expectations but at the end of the day the only expectations we should try and meet are our own. Life is far too short to put yourself in a position where you may wake up one day full of regret and as a young person, I feel I owe it to myself to try and make a fist of something that I know many people never got a chance to do when they were younger. It is for these reasons that I have decided to at least attempt to make a career out of fly fishing.
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| Josh has been taking some amazing photos recently, this one after a a light dusting of snow on the river bank. |
Over half of all people are unhappy with their jobs. This is just sometimes a reality of life and that is why it is called a job. However I truly believe that if you are in a position to make a living out of something you love, then you owe it not only to yourself but to all the people who are not totally happy with their work to try and do something about it. For some of these people it is too late to just drop everything and go fishing (or whatever it is they enjoy) as a lifestyle and career choice. Having said this, if I can make peoples lives a bit better by putting up movies of me going fishing, taking people out fishing or even selling people fishing gear, then that small transfer of happiness that occurs is worth more to the world than me earning a high salary.
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| The classic frozen guide shot. Josh and his Canon 600D at work. |
There may indeed come a time where I have to settle down, get that office job and start a family or I may indeed fail to make a reasonable living out of fishing. I just really don't want to be the guy who looks in the mirror in twenty years time and wonder if I have wasted my youth by not being as happy as I can be.
Watch this trailer (and the full film you can find on Vimeo too), as it has some valuable insights as to the dangers of just wandering through life.
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