I've been watching ads for a story that NBC 5 Chicago is going to show on their newscast. It is from a real life medium that talks about how her experiences with the dead indicate that their common communication to her is that they wished that they spent more time with their family. One example is a father playing catch with their son more instead of working.
I'll admit that the balance between work and family has been one that I've struggled with, especially since I opened my own company. There is that "freedom" from not working for the "man," but also the reality that income is only derived from what you are doing to generate it. I think that there is a time in the evolution of ones business where you don't have to work as long as when you first started to generate income, since a substantial part of the time is finding that first client. Nevertheless, even if it is not work that keeps you away from your kids or family, your own personal interests or spending needless time surfing the internet can take away from good quality family time.
One of the solutions that I've found to this dilemma is just simple time management. Setting hard start and stop times for work and individual interests and spending the balance of the time with my family has worked well when I stick to it. In addition, family time with me does not always mean that I'm going to be with my entire family at all times. My wife and I make it a point to have the equivalent of a "date" at least once a week. We've found this to be a contributing factor to our continued love for one another after 16 years. We starting dating in high school, and each of us have evolved into different people. However, we evolved into the people that we are together. My love for her is stronger now than it ever has been. One on one time with our children has also contributed to a deeper and more meaningful relationship with them.
The net of my thoughts here is that I believe it is God/Family/Work all the way, and in that order. Time management and properly performing all the different roles we have in life is the most simple to do in theory, but most difficult to achieve in practice.
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Oh, the ripe old age of 40. I never knew it would be so difficult to now be my mother's age. Where did the time go since high school? How can it be that I remember my mother's 40th surprise birthday party so vividly but I can't remember yesterday? My kids must think I'm ancient, I do. I'm supposed to be more mature, more experienced, more worldly, but mentally, I feel 15. 40 physically another story! I feel 80! Why is 40 such an extreme year? My grandmother lived to be 106, I'm still a kid, right? She lived on lard and bakery, I live on multi-vitamins and anything green, yet I'm sure I don't feel as good as she did. Stress, this fast-paced society, what? Any answers?
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