I consider myself as a hard worker. I’m usually willing to stay for extra work, I’m often working on weekends and I’m constantly thinking about what I could do more and how I could be more effective. I know it sounds like no life, no fun. It’s not like that. I’m not a workaholic. To be honest I would love to take an extra vacation, see more of my many friends, take a trip somewhere or just hang around with my family. Why do I do things that are not that pleasant? Why do I do things that are not always fun and easy? Well, there is an answer, I have dreams. Actually, I don’t think about those things as dreams, they are more like goals to me and I am determined to achieve them. One of my dreams is to build a stunning stone house. Since I’m not born with a silver spoon in my mouth, this task needs quite a lot of resources and there is a lot of subtasks to be achieved before this main task.
Just to give you a picture of my dream (read goal) I went running with my son in a buggy today and took a photo. This is our most used running path and it passes one very nice neighborhood with a house that is quite close to the house that I have imagined for myself. I have a habit to run this same path now and then because it is helps me to keep my goals and dreams alive.
Sometimes it is difficult to keep the right balance of spent time between family and work. Especially if I foresee some great opportunities to make some extra money, then in my experience I should take it or I’ll lose it. Sometimes these opportunities come just when my family needs me and those situations are very difficult because the decision needs to be made quickly. Usually I’ve chosen my family but sometimes I’ve been able to negotiate with my family if the situation allows. I guess I’m lucky that I’ve already reached one of my goals, my family, and I don’t want to take them for granted. All the materialistic goals are secondary, even though they are also important.
What about you, how difficult for you is to arrange enough time for family and work? How to separate those two things properly? And the most important question is how to achieve goals without sacrificing time with family?
-Marko