The impetus for my decision to research and write more came from a YouTube video by Carie Harling. She has a great series on organization, but she has also done some shorter series.

I recently watched the first in a series she did called “Find A Why Not.” The basic premise is that, when you tell people you are planning on going in a new direction, they always ask you “Why?” Carie says to turn that around and ask “Why not?” She gives hints on how to find your “why not” that might be one of your purposes in life.

I have had a lot of jobs in my life, and none of them were completely satisfying and only really led to my retiring as soon as I possibly could at the age of 50 (actually four days shy of my 51st birthday). So I have been floundering without a clear purpose for 15 years now.

I watched Carie’s video and decided to find my “why not.” I looked at what I have spent the most time doing that I also enjoyed the most. Carpentry was one phase I went through. I even bought a Shopsmith years ago. It’s sitting in the garage unused. Gardening was a bigger phase. I built a 12 x 24 greenhouse in the backyard, set up a large number of raised beds using the square foot gardening method, and grew lots of flowers and vegetables. My health spoiled that, and now the garden is gone and the greenhouse is going to pot.

Then I realized that the one thing I have done consistently over many decades is research and write about things that interest me. You can read about that in my “About Me” page linked in the top menu. So I thought, “Why not research and write full time?” Being retired on fixed income means I don’t have the pressure of trying to make money from writing. I will post things that I have written in the past, so they might find a bigger audience. I will write on a lot of subjects: genealogy, family stories, my life, music, and whatever else suits me. I hope you will find some of it interesting.

Find your own “why nots.”

Michael T. Slaughter