Mike Munter

Mike Munter

Former major league baseball executive goes back to the roots of living!

Mike Munter got laid off 2 years ago. He spent the first 18 months of it, waiting, hoping, thinking about various different careers, buying a business, a franchise, starting a business. Mike was hot on several different things and even hired Craig Nathanson-The Vocational Coach for 3 months to help. Mike discovered through this process that he no longer had the “energy” to see new ventures through. He didn’t get cold feet, Mike just didn’t feel it. He went to Peru with the intention of finding his life purpose, his work. Mike didn’t find it there.

During this 2 year layoff, Mike had this feeling of wanting less and lightening his load. He decided to get rid of lots of things and rely less on new material purchases.

After returning from Peru, the only thing Mike was certain of was that he no longer wanted to have a mortgage. He remembered a documentary he saw on cob houses so he found the guy who teaches it and went to a workshop. Mike came back excited and started to teach himself how to build such a garden. At the same time, Mike expanded his garden ten fold and really got into learning about food preservation and how to grow foods. Mike started to develop this idea of living mostly off the land and building his own house and dropping the mortgage.

Mike watched the zeitgeist movies and lo and behold he became more and more informed (and jaded) toward what we have become. We work to get money so we can pay our rent and buy our food and whatever other junk is being marketed at us 24/7. So Mike realized he likes his new work around the house. He likes being home and seeing neighbors and working outside and he likes these long slow mornings and not rushing around anymore. Mike thinks to himself, maybe this IS the work he has been seeking and so how can he keep this going? He thinks, “how did our great grandparents do it before the industrial revolution made everything easy for us?”

Mike has some money that ought to last 2-3 more years and then he has a couple of houses to sell and hopefully get money out of them to buy another 2-3. In the mean time, Mike wants to build a beautiful house very cheap and grow a lot of the food he will eat. Ultimately, Mike wants to be an example to show others how to get off the treadmill and into living. He also wants to erect a huge screen and show drive in movies in an open field in the summer to generate a little bit of income to cover things like car insurance.

Life is good now!

What can we learn from Mike’s story?

We tend to want more then we actually need. Going inside to reflect what is truly important and how one needs to live can change in mid-life. The possibilities are there for growth and joy. In mid-life work can indeed take on various new shapes and forms!