WARNING: looong post:
I think that what I consider "soft stuff" may be different than what you view as soft stuff -- to me, the "soft stuff" is the foundation on which the numbers of FIRE is built. I think my view is shaped by my attempts to teach finance to other people;
When I enumerate the keys to FIRE, the first item is something along the lines of "a sufficiently motivating purpose". For me, these are the things that make me cry because I love them so much (or because it would be the worst thing, to me, to lose them). My health, my family, my friendship with my best friend, my friendship with collection of 'dads', my independence, my ability to tell my boss to stick it, my mind/curiosity, etc.
A lot of my motivators are "sappy". For example, we watched "Finding Nemo" on the flight over and the story revolves around a fish dad whose entire family (wife and 10,000 egglets, except one [Nemo]) get wiped out. It's heart wrenching, for this dad, as the dad tries to make his way back and find his son. At the end they reunite, but the father is quickly confronted with needing to let his son go do something dangerous. I don't know if I could do that, but maybe it's necessary. It made me cry.
Anyway, it seems to me that's the way life is, for me, at least. You squander time and opportunities. Then you figure things out somewhat and pray like mad that you have enough time to really enjoy it sufficiently. You just don't want to let it go. Which makes you more vulnerable because that's the thing that people could use to hurt you.
Too often, it seems, we figure out how to love/appreciate those close to us, and ourselves and, one day, at the breakfast table, we have a heart attack, turn blue and expire in our Rice Krispies. Or cancer ravages us. Or, or, or...
So now I enjoy my life a lot. My only regret is that I didn't figure "it" out sooner. I just wish I had more 'moments'. This author put it well, i thought:
http://www.bobdevlin.com/erma_bombeck.html
The last bit, in particular:
But mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute...look at it and really see it...live it...and never give it back. Part of how I lost a considerable amount of weight (20kg) was that I made a list of consequences of my over eating and one of them was that I didn't experience emotions richly enough. Eating 'anesthetized' me. To anger and boredom and sadness and tension. Especially sadness. Now I find that I get sad, and really feel it, and then I stand on the other side and the sadness just sort of hangs there, like a curtain, that I can look through or like a blob off to the side. (The subject of "Tuesdays with Morrie" described the pain of his degenerative illness similarly.) And having 'stood outside' of my pain, I feel immensely calmer and more carefree, sooner. As a result I think I 'seize moments' much more than I used to.
but i digress...
