What life Don Quixote could have if he wasn't chasing dreams and obsessed with chivalry?

Don Quixote was a gentleman with a decent estate, which
would have been better kept if he had not spent his money on Romantic books of chivalry.
His thirst for Romance would have to be satiated in some way or another, whether it was
endagering his life or others as a knight or not.

In Ch. 6,
the licentiate (academic) is searching through the titles of his library before they
burn them, keeping a few valuables. When books of poetry are left, he suggest keeping
those there, for they are not in the harmful addictive topic of chivalry. The niece and
he then decide that it best not leave those either, for he may decide, if not
knighthood, then to observe pastoral life as a poet, which may be
worse.

So, DQ would find his outlet somewhere to fulfill
his passionate, Romantic soul.