I have stumbled upon a phrase that took hold in my mind earlier this morning, the concept of “Gainful unemployment”. The known saying is to describe someone as being gainfully employed. This would describe someone who has taken a traditional 9-5 job and is, by some measure, a productive part of society.

I am gainfully unemployed. I do not work in the traditional, 9-5 sense, and I am a productive part of my corner of society. I value my time so much that the idea of trading the traditional amount of it for money puts me off fundamentally. I accept that my opting out of a traditional life paints me with a broad brush. I alone will bear the weight of this decision, and I expect nothing from anyone. I will make my way as I see fit, and my success or failure is entirely up to me. It’s simultaneously invigorating and daunting to live this out in practice, but I honestly couldn’t live any other way. Working for myself my entire adult life has broken any chance I had at having a traditional career. That is never going to happen.

So long as I have what I need, can help the ones I love, and spend my time doing what I want, when I want, then it will be a life well lived. Standards are made to be challenged, and I have nothing better to do than issue the challenge. I own the outcome, I own my life.