u/ChallengeTies

Background: I spent a few years trading full time. Indexes mostly. Almost good income, zero meaning (for me), constant cortisol.

My girlfriend and I decided to stop talking about leaving and actually leave. Van, no fixed plan, see what happens. We drove through France and Spain. Did a few trips like London, Morocco, Minorca. Nothing backpacker-hardcore, just two people figuring out what they actually wanted from life. Right now we're in Portugal for two months, volunteering at an eco place. It's quiet. It's slow but the thing I didn't expect: I missed having something to optimize.

Not the trading. The tracking. The scorekeeping. Turns out that part of my brain doesn't switch off, it just needs a different target. So I gave it one. A simple daily habit. Then two. My girlfriend joined in. We hold each other accountable which sounds very self-help-podcast but genuinely changed the consistency completely.

11 months ago I was refreshing charts at 7am. This morning I had coffee in a garden in Portugal and watched our wonderful dog in the lake.

Same brain. Different metrics.

If you're stuck in something that pays well but feels hollow — I'm not saying quit everything. I'm saying the thing you're optimizing for might just be wrong.

Happy to share if anyone's in a similar spot.

Background: I spent a few years trading full time. Indexes mostly. Almost good income, zero meaning (for me), constant cortisol.

My girlfriend and I decided to stop talking about leaving and actually leave. Van, no fixed plan, see what happens. We drove through France and Spain. Did a few trips like London, Morocco, Minorca. Nothing backpacker-hardcore, just two people figuring out what they actually wanted from life. Right now we're in Portugal for two months, volunteering at an eco place. It's quiet. It's slow but the thing I didn't expect: I missed having something to optimize.

Not the trading. The tracking. The scorekeeping. Turns out that part of my brain doesn't switch off, it just needs a different target. So I gave it one. A simple daily habit. Then two. My girlfriend joined in. We hold each other accountable which sounds very self-help-podcast but genuinely changed the consistency completely.

11 months ago I was refreshing charts at 7am. This morning I had coffee in a garden in Portugal and watched our wonderful dog in the lake.

Same brain. Different metrics.

If you're stuck in something that pays well but feels hollow — I'm not saying quit everything. I'm saying the thing you're optimizing for might just be wrong.

Happy to share if anyone's in a similar spot.

I was a day trader. Which sounds cool until you realize what it actually means.

It means you wake up and immediately open 6 screens. It means your mood is dictated by numbers you can't fully control. It means you're "working from home" but you never really leave work because work is always one tab away.

I was... good at it. That was the problem. Good enough to keep doing it. Not good enough to feel like it meant anything.

My girlfriend and I had been talking about leaving for a while. One day we just... did it. Sold what we could, packed the rest into a van, and drove south.

France first. Then Spain. Now we're in Portugal for two months, looking after an eco place in the middle of nowhere. No trading screens. Spotty wifi. Our wonderful dog and a garden we didn't plant.

Here's what nobody tells you about escaping the grind: the grind follows you.

Not the work. The anxiety. The need to be doing something measurable. I'd spent years optimizing, tracking, analyzing. Remove that and I didn't know what to do with myself.

So I started applying the same brain to something smaller. One habit. Track it daily. Don't break the chain.

My girlfriend started one too. Different goal, same commitment. We check in with each other. We compete a little. It's stupid and it works incredibly well.

We're currently in Portugal. This morning I made coffee outside while the sun came up over the hills.

Felt fine.

What made you start taking habits seriously?