As I wrote in my article, The Need For Work, I had to conquer some of my fears in order to be in the position where I could choose my own kind of work. Blogging is the kind of work I've chosen.

Everyone has goals in life, many that eventually lead to retirement. Retirement could be considered an ultimate goal, but not just any retirement. It has to be a retirement where you're financially secure. I'm 46 years old, retired and financially secure. Getting to this point in my life was the scariest thing that ever happened to me.

After I joined the military in 1978, I had to get over my fear of heights in order to jump off a 100-foot diving board while fully dressed in combat attire, as part of water survival training. Later, I had to continue to fight that fear in order to rappel from a simulated helicopter "hellhole" and down the side of a wall (the height of which I don't care to remember). Both of these events were nothing compared to the fear a major change in life would later create.

I retired from the military in 1998 and started drawing a monthly pension. I knew it would never be more than added income as long as I continued with the life I was leading. I had an "ace in hole", however, and knew that one day it would eventually be enough. My wife, whom I'd met and married in the eighties, was an American citizen with a rather large family still living in the Philippines. After a change in Philippine law in 2003, she became dual citizen, with citizenship in both the United States and the Philippines. After that, we made future plans for retirement in the Philippines.

Since my father-in-law, who was living with us along with my mother-in-law, died in 2003, my mother-in-law eventually moved back to the Philippines. My younger son accompanied her so that he could start college there. That was in July of 2005, I believe. I and my wife planned to move to the Philippines in 2010 if things were favorable. The rise in housing prices prompted us to do it much quicker. Before I sold my house in 2006, it took nearly every ounce of courage I could muster to give up the lifestyle I was accustomed to. After I sold the house, it took the remainder to make the move to a country I was only vaguely familiar with.

Even after calculating costs and developing a reasonable monthly budget, my fears did not subside until I was actually here, in the Philippines and living amongst my wife's family and other relatives. All of my fears were unfounded, but I had no way of knowing that until worked past them. There was one final fear that I had to conquer, and it had yet to manifest itself.

That final fear was the fear of not having enough to do. Unlike some of my fellow countrymen that are also retired in the local area, I don't frequent bars or clubs, drink or chase loose women. Well, I do drink on occasion, but only around home. When I "discovered" blogging in May of 2006, that final fear was conquered. Sure, I started off slow, but that part wasn't by choice. I had other priorities to take care of with home and family before I could devote the time required to do what I do today.

I read a really good book a few years ago titled "Who Moved My Cheese?" in which the mice were resisting change. Resisting change, remaining in our little comfort zones, is the primary reason most of us develop fears in the first place. We fear change and we fear the unknown. Only when we conquer those fears can we move on to a place or into a position that's completely different from the one we're in.