MARTYHAUGHT

Having just returned from a well-earned week off hiking in the mountains with my wife, I had plenty of time to do some thinking about my life and how things are going. It was quite a blessing to be completely disconnected with no computer or cell coverage. It was just me, my lovely wife, the beautiful mountains and nature for the better part of a week.

One of the things I was pondering was my work-life balance and the general priorities that I have made in my life. A couple weeks ago I attended a Silicon Flatirons interview of Brad Feld on work-life balance. I liked hearing Brad’s solution to this issue and it gave me some food for thought. One of his points is that he schedules a week off, totally disconnected from work, every quarter. How fitting that I was about to do the same thing myself. I can attest that when the week was over I was indeed refreshed and excited to get back at it. I highly recommend taking a real break from your daily life to recharge if you’re feeling even the touches of burn out.

The other concept that I really thought about was the notion that you should live a full life now and not put off ‘the good life’ until after you’ve worked hard and saved up lots of money. There are a number of reasons that this makes great sense. First off, what happens if you meet an untimely end before you could enjoy this second part of your life? The other one is quite relevant today and what happens if you suddenly find your prosperity or savings wiped out and you’re no longer able to enjoy the good life as you envisioned it. What I’ve decided to do is really start doing all those things you really want to do now so that if things change or I don’t make it there I won’t have regrets about how I lived my life. A core part of this is the belief that I can indeed life a full and wonderful life right now regardless how much I’ve saved up or before I’ve made it big (whatever that is). The old cliche of how life is a journey, not a destination seems appropriate here. I want to have the best journey possible and look at my current circumstances with gratitude and thankfulness. Indeed I do feel this way.

I started writing up my thoughts on life priorities and how I balance them with the time/resources I have today. I’ve opted not to add them to this post as it was getting really long and I didn’t want to write a novel! Perhaps I’ll post them another time in a shorter form.

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