I haven't read that book, but I recently heard an interview with one of the authors that was fascinating. She's had a really unusual, interesting life. I follow a few blogs in the broader financial independence community, and unsurprisingly a lot of them spend time talking about happiness. Most of them don't manage it as concisely as you just did. And yet all the reading about it has only helped me so much. I have a plan, I'm executing the plan. And I like my life right now plenty. And I know -- oh God, I know, I know, I know -- that I cannot do this job for the rest of my life. It is killing me slowly. I think I age two years for every one I spend doing it.

But I think longingly of the day when I will not have to do it anymore, and I know it will be so good for me to have time for creativity and more physical exercise and for intellectual curiosity and to really enjoy my marriage. But that freedom is also scary? Because at that point it will all be on me to fill my days with things that nourish me. And oh god will I miss this job: the adrenaline and the sense of consequence and all the secret things. What do you do when the thing which fulfills your need for engagement and industry is also sapping your ability to meet your other needs? Ugh. Why so needy, these animal brains.