The Juggling Act is a Good Thing

Sometimes folks who work in corporate jobs just don’t get me. I tell them I work three to four days per week and earn more than double my old corporate salary, and still, they tell me it’s a bad gig. In fact, they think I’m even crazier for giving up my corporate retirement nest egg. I’ve come to realize this feeling stems from one major issue… many folks feel more comfortable completely separating work from leisure.

In other words, they like to know:

• From 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. weekdays I’m at the office
• Before 8:00 a.m., after 6:00 p.m., and on weekends, I’m with my family

I’ll be the first to admit I understand this logic. The clear separation of work and play makes it easy to keep your worlds separate (and never end up with a pile of laundry on your home office desk). Taking this thought process one step further… I think many folks like the structure that comes with a corporate job. Someone else is telling you to show up at a specific time for work. You don’t have to self-motivate.

For me, I did struggle with this balancing act when I first left my cushy corporate job. There were definitely days I felt torn between time with my son and wife, time on house chores, and time spent working from the home office. There were even days my family was in my home office while I multi-tasked on work and house chores (i.e., calling the exterminator for a pesky bug problem on the front steps).

Now that I’ve been out of the corporate gig for a bunch of years, I’ve come to appreciate controlling when I work and when I play. Sure it was an adjustment to be my own boss, but I’ll take that any day over someone else telling me what to do. That’s what paying your life first is all about.