Sunday, June 12, 2011

The priorities of life

One of the matters that has occupied my mind lately is how the fun of racing and motorsports must often take a backseat to the priorities of life. In my life, there has been almost a single minded focus on my car as a hobby and I have had recently to re-align myself to focus on the priorities which are clear and present before indulgent expenditures on my car.

To put it clearly into perspective, there are compromises in every facet of one's life and there must be a appropriate balance between your hobby versus priorities of daily living. I've decided to put my energies and resources into my personal & work matters first and thus will have to put this project on a temporary hold until those issues are attended to properly which may take close to a year. To recognise that a hobby is merely for entertainment is simply to look at it critically and to put things in their proper place.

Thankfully, nearly 90% of my expenditures to date are complete and I need no longer wonder how much more I could build my car up to. That is an important step as I have already decided some time ago to stop at this current juncture and focus on simple maintenance once the current level of modifications are finished. I've also put forward my budgeting for yearly tracking and consumables in order to ensure I'm very comfortable with expenditures as regular tracking can take it toll on the budget.

I've seen many go bust due to over-indulgence and lack of prioritization on personal matters versus hobby expenditures so I'd like to take a leaf from that book before heading down that nasty path. Thankfully, I've not needed to take the drastic step some others have had to due to compromises and I'm indeed mindful of how lucky I am. In order to enjoy my hobby in the future, self moderation is due so I can have a longer time to enjoy motorsports and tracking in my life.