But, I also need to keep the idea of work/life balance in mind at all times. For those that don't know I've been married for going on 13 years now to a wonderful women and I have two daughters, ages 8 and 4. To say my life is "fully booked" is an understatement. The problem with life on the edge like this is there isn't a lot of margin for error. I need every second (or at least it feels that way).
Take this morning for instance. I had to pick up my car from the shop. My 4 year old was with me. I took one look at the bill and it was all wrong, not all of the work was complete. My head immediately went into over drive. The work wasn't complete, How could they have missed this, I needed it done, I'm travelling next week, I don't have time to leave it now, need to go home and clean before the sitter comes, etc... Help!!
Then I did something I don't normally do. I took a deep breath. I looked at my 4 year old over in the corner playing with the toys. I asked them what we can do to fix this. They said they would fix it right now and it would take 30 minutes. Normally I would have blown a gasket by now but I didn't.
My daughter and I went over to the grocery store and bought a few things so I could at least get that out of the way. I played with her in the kid's area and we bought some cupcakes and had a little party. Yeah, my entire day is now off and I'm behind the rest of the weekend. Yes, I had 2-3 more blog posts I wanted to get out before EMC World and my company's sales meeting next week. Yes, I still have 2 presentations to put together this weekend and about 30-40 e-mails to answer before Monday morning. But, I also have a wife that I love more than anything and two wonderful daughters to show for it. Sometimes you just have to take a step back and breathe...
Happy Mother's Day Kim!! I Love You!! Oh, and I didn't have a chance to get you a card this year so this will have to do.
3 comments:
Well put....I can definitely emphathize with you right now. Something I heard a while back in a sermon that helps me keep perspective is....basically asking "what is the worst that could happen?" (get delayed, patch something up, lose my job, etc.)...and as you run through those it just helps gain perspective for me at least (kind of a reverse of the old "count your blessings" idea I guess). If you're a Christian, there's a definite path that that thought process goes....but I think there's applicability there regardlesss (well, maybe not if you're a hyper-stressed-type personality..but if you are I don't think you'd even be in this industry ;-).
Hey Andrew! Thanks for the kind words. I couldn't agree more!
As I became fond of saying when I was out of work for 7 months during the last recession, as long as we have a roof over our head, food in our bellies, and our health the rest of it really doesn't matter. Whenever I feel flustered or overworked I step back and think of how fortunate I am to live in a country where that is the worst thing that I have to worry about =)
Post a Comment