You Don’t Need to Wait Until You Have the So-Called “Perfect Life” to Enjoy Yourself

Lessons from a sausage festival in deepest Croatia

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I love to observe people. It makes for interesting stories and tidbits to squeeze into articles like this one.

I spent this weekend observing a lot of people in deepest Croatia - central Istria to be precise - at a local sausage festival. I was there to help make a 333-meter-long sausage. There me and my friends were with a rabble of burly butchers from the village, buckets of sausage meat, and a small sausage machine. Around us were hundreds of people watching the spectacle.

Image credit: Jose Alfonso Cussianovich

Friends, I won’t lie, it was the most fun I’ve had in ages. Some would say it was the most fun you can have with a sausage (yes, the puns were plentiful and they got dirtier as the night wore on).

The festival was huge. Hundreds of people flooded to this tiny village - and to the monastery where we were making said sausage - to eat, drink and enjoy themselves like only Croatians can.

There was beer. There was Rakija, the Croatian national spirit. Cheese. Sausage. And singing. Lots and lots of singing. The festival went on until 4 am (although I only managed until midnight).

I watched everyone, from the butchers to the Croatian grandmas to the kids who came to watch the live band late into the evening to the local farmers. And in Europe, you can people-watch with abandon because, unlike in my UK homeland, no one cares if you stare at them for minutes at a time.

After watching people partake in this incredible show of hospitality, generosity, and fun in the tiny village of Sveti Petar u Šumi, one thought rumbled around my noggin again and again.

You don’t need to wait until you have the so-called “perfect life” to enjoy yourself.

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What does our society tell us the perfect life looks like? In my experience, much of it looks like the OG American Dream, regardless of if you live in the. US or elsewhere.

It means a big house in the suburbs. Enough money to afford everything you want with ease. Most importantly, the opportunity to be upwardly mobile - to get the promotion, to buy bigger and fancier houses and cars.

We want status. People to respect us and look up to us. And money is the surefire way to do that, right? I mean, that’s what we’re all told in the Western world.

So we work hard and we hustle and we put all our time and energy into “making it.” Then, we think, we’ll enjoy ourselves. We’ll reap the rewards of our hard work once we’ve reached the top of the mountain. Once we’re “successful.”

I know Croatians are not immune to this way of thinking either. But there is something else afoot in places like Croatia - and other parts of Europe. It’s what Michael of

Brent and Michael Are Going Places

said in last week's interview - these places have a joie de vivre about them that other countries like the US or UK do not.

I saw that this weekend.

These are not rich places. They are not filled with people who have “made it” in the conventional sense. Like most rural areas, the money can be tight and the work can be hard.

But they are not waiting until they’re rich with a fancy house to enjoy themselves. They do it now.

Drinking Rakija (always). Image credit: Jose Alfonso Cussianovich

Yes, this was amplified by the festival. But I know for a fact that life isn’t enjoyed just on special occasions in Croatia, it’s enjoyed year-round. I’ve seen it more times than I care to count.

The same goes for places like Spain. Back when I was living in La Rioja, the streets were rammed every single day with people eating, drinking, and socializing. They didn’t wait for a special occasion to go out and enjoy themselves, it was woven into their everyday lives.

Again, people in Rioja don’t live in fancy houses and I only saw one car worth over $100k in the 6 months I lived there. Most people live in apartments and many work in wine or hospitality which are not exactly money-spinning careers.

Yet they enjoyed themselves with a joie de vivre which you would be hard-pressed to find in the likes of Manchester or LA or London.

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Why, though? Why don’t we allow ourselves to enjoy life more than we do? Why do we think that, say, retirement is when we’ll really let loose?

I have some ideas.

Our Puritan work ethic does us no favors. The Protestantism PR campaign did a really good job back in the day. It persuaded people that the harder they worked, the higher their level of salvation would be when they die. It’s suggested that this concept is the origin story of modern-day capitalism. And which countries embody capitalism more than America or the UK?

Then there are our black-and-white ideas about work and retirement. We think ages 21-65 are for hustling and grinding. Post 65 is for enjoying your life - if you can after working yourself into a nubbin of a human for so long.

Finally, it’s the money. The chasing of it. The belief that life will be better once we get more of it. The fact that we are prepared to put our whole lives on hold for the pursuit of it. Not only that, but life - especially in places like America and the UK - is expensive, which rather takes the shine off our potential joie de vivre.

All of this comes together in a perfect maelstrom of misery. We keep striving for that perfect life, believing that once we get it, we’ll relax.

But the goalposts keep moving. So we never get there.

Of course, there is another way. Myriad other ways in fact. Much of it boils down to what I talk about here at Simple and Straightforward all the time:

Live a simpler, more intentional life. Don’t sweat status and all the trappings that come with chasing it. Don’t sweat working your ass off for more and more money (once you make enough for a good life).

Less time spent making money / chasing status / buying stuff you don’t need = more time to spend enjoying yourself now.

There’s something else at play here too - guilt. Too many people feel guilty for enjoying themselves, they think they haven’t yet earned it. They think they can give themselves permission to be happy once they’ve “sorted out” their lives.

But if that were true, all retirees sitting on piles of money would be happy - and they’re not.

The reality is that all of us are the sum of our habits. If we make a habit of having fun and enjoying ourselves on a frequent basis, then we will always do that. But if we make a habit of being miserable whilst grinding ourselves down, then that’s hardly going to change after 20 years. I’ve seen too many people forget how to have fun because they’re too focused on the hustle and grind. When they’re societally rewarded for their efforts, they’re just as miserable because it’s their habit to be so.

Having fun is a choice, one that you can make at any age, (almost) whatever your situation.

Just ask the residents of Sveti Petar u Šumi.

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Oh, one more thing about the sausage festival. I was super pumped to come second in their sausage-making competition, just one place lower than a professional butcher! And one up from a Croatian grandma.

If this writing gig doesn’t work out, it’s good to know I’ve got a fallback…

Second place!