What It Means to Awaken: How to Retire Early and Live
By: David Lundberg, Founder, MBA MSCJ Marine Veteran 01/15/2026
“When the mind is quiet, clarity arises.” A timeless principle echoed across contemplative traditions
One must be aware that before numbers, strategies, retirement dates or projections; there is awareness.
At Awaken Financial Designs, the word “Awaken” is not a brand flourish or a clever name. It is a lived principle. One that reflects how we choose to live, how we choose to guide others, and how we believe wealth is meant to serve a human life.
To awaken is to pause long enough to ask: Is the life I’m building actually aligned with who I am?
Awakening Is a Choice; Not an Escape
Most people don’t consciously choose their financial lives. They inherit scripts like: work harder, save more, delay joy, protect at all costs, and live later. This pattern is rarely questioned; not because it is right, but because it is familiar.
Awakening begins when someone notices they are operating on autopilot and decides to step into intention. In spiritual, psychological, and leadership traditions, awakening is the shift from unconscious momentum to conscious design.
This idea appears across modern thought leadership from: Deepak Chopra, who speaks to consciousness as the foundation of well-being, to Robin Sharma, who emphasizes intentional living, to Joe Dispenza, who explores how awareness reshapes behavior, and Tony Robbins, who teaches that lasting change begins with clarity of state and purpose.
Different voices, but the same truth. Awakening is not about abandoning responsibility. It is about waking up inside responsibility.
Our Personal Journey Toward Alignment
For us personally “David and Ashley”, awakening was not theoretical.
Like many families, we experienced seasons of stress, pressure, and disconnection. Seasons where productivity was high, but presence was thin. Where we were “doing the right things,” yet felt something essential was missing.
Through meditation, breathwork, and intentional reflection, we began to notice a simple truth: success without alignment does not feel like success.
We made a conscious choice to design a life and later, a business; that reflected who we truly are, not who society told us we should be. That meant integrating stillness with strategy, awareness with action, and safety with freedom.
Awaken Financial Designs was born from that commitment.
Why Awakening Matters in Retirement Planning
Most people believe retirement planning is about money alone. Concepts like: how much you have, how long it lasts, and whether the math works.
Yet we have met countless families with $300,000, $700,000, $1 million, or even $2 million or more saved. Who are still afraid to live fully, afraid to spend, afraid to retire and afraid to choose freedom. Not because they are irresponsible, but because they lack clarity and emotional safety.
Awakening changes this. When someone becomes aware of how finite time and energy truly are, early retirement stops being about “escaping work” and starts becoming about choosing life while health and vitality are present.
Money becomes a support system not a source of fear.
Why We Integrate Breathwork and Meditation
Awakening is not only a mental process; it is physiological. A regulated nervous system makes better decisions. A calm body allows clearer thinking. Presence reduces fear-based behavior.
This is why we integrate breathwork, meditation, and visualization into our live events and planning process. These practices help clients slow down, step out of survival mode, and access clarity before making significant life and financial decisions.
This is not separate from financial planning; It enhances it.
When people feel safe emotionally and financially, they plan differently. They spend with intention, they protect wisely, and they live more fully.
Protection Is the Foundation of Conscious Living
Awakening does not mean ignoring risk. In fact, true awakening requires safety.
Cash reserves, insurances, income buffers, tax strategy, investments and flexibility are not fear based tools; they are what allow people to relax into life without anxiety.
Protection creates peace, peace creates clarity, and clarity creates freedom.
This is why we treat protection as foundational, not optional. It is the root that allows everything else to grow.
Awakening, Early Retirement, and a Different Definition of Wealth
When planning is conscious, early retirement becomes a byproduct; not a fixation.
Awakened planning integrates:
disciplined investing
thoughtful tax strategy
flexible income design
health and longevity awareness
emotional and relational alignment
This allows people to spend more intentionally during the years when life can be fully lived, while still remaining prepared if they live long, full lives into their 80s or 90s.
It replaces accumulation for its own sake with alignment.
Not for Everyone Intentionally
We are not trying to be the right fit for everyone. We are here for people who feel a quiet inner knowing that there is more to life than checking boxes. For those who value presence as much as performance, peace as much as progress, and alignment as much as accumulation.
Awakening is a choice and it naturally attracts the right people.
A Gentle Reflection
Before thinking about retirement dates or account balances, consider this: If your time, energy, and health were honored as deeply as your net worth… How might your life look different?
That question is often where awakening begins.
An Invitation
At Awaken Financial Designs, we guide individuals and couples through conscious financial planning that integrates wealth, wellness, and intentional living. Our approach honors discipline and protection, while also honoring the human experience.
If this philosophy resonates, we invite you to explore our Wealth & Life Alignment Method™, available as a free guide on our homepage.
When you awaken to what truly matters, the way you retire and the way you live changes entirely.
