Suddenly we wish we had back the time we spent working and are willing to trade the cars, the houses, the extras, all for time with our family.
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Take a breath. I don’t have some pitch for some sleazy scheme to hound you with. I want to share with you something I have learned the hard way in life. Maybe you already know this secret. Maybe you do, or maybe you don’t care. I don’t know. Either way, I feel a sense of responsibility to pass along the experience and knowledge I gain in life, so take it or leave it.
Time. It’s all they really want. Your family wants time.
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In the past six to twelve months, I have become restless in life. I found myself searching for answers, seeking different ways to earn a living so I could be home more with my family. This all set in with me after I wrote an article for my site recently entitled, Number Your Days: My Perspective On Life. Life flies by. We blink, and then we’ve lost loved ones, our kids are graduating, it just goes by too fast.
But you know the routine: You get up at the crack of dawn (or at dusk if you work at night), you rush to get everyone ready for work/school, there is a brief moment where you say your hello’s and goodbyes and then you go about your day. Most of our time is spent working to make someone else’s dream come true. It is a sucky fact to face, but it is true, in most cases.
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That’s not the end of the story, though. After work, after school, there are events for the kids, extra-curricular activities, meetings, get-togethers, it is a never ending cycle of hurry and life-sucking busyness. But, hey, you have enough money to pay the bills, right? It’s not worth it anymore, to me.
Why?
Because after I pay my bills, then what? After we achieve the top-ranked position in our company, then what? After we have made all the money in life, then what? What do we do after our families are older, our kids are gone, and we have all the time in the world.
We wish.
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We wish we had the time we spent working back, and suddenly we are willing to trade the new cars, the nice houses, the extras, for the time with our family.
Here’s the question I ask myself almost daily: Is it worth it? I mean, it is just like yesterday my eleven-year-old was born, and now, he’s four years from getting a driver’s permit. Scary.
Our families are not replaceable. They are all we have in life. Make time for them.
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What can I do, is the question I am asking now, to minimalize my lifestyle, to change how we live, so I can be more present, more often, for my family? Yeah, the house is nice and so are the vehicles. Guess what, neither of those things will attend my funeral and neither will the bankers who loaned me the money. Today will be gone soon, what can we do starting tomorrow to build a better life for our families?
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When you leave your current job, they will replace you. It’s the cycle of life. We’re replaceable, and we know it.
Our families are not replaceable. They are who we have in life; they are all we have. Maybe you don’t have a biological family, but you have a family. You know who they are. Don’t allow the rat-race of life to steal that from you.
It’s time we prioritize our lives, speaking to myself also, because, this is, in fact, for me. Screw the high-paying jobs. Screw the rat race. I want my kids to say their daddy stood up for them, and he fought for time with them and their mom.
Really, at the end of the day, that’s all that matters. It is the legacy we leave to those we love, and those who love us.
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Photo credit: Pixabay/jill111
If there was more unions in both the blue collar and white collar jobs, the men would have more rights to spend time with their families. Instead, the USA has the few employee rights and there is this cultural attitude that the boss is the boss and if you don’t like it, quit or suck it up.
Truth is….if more men stood up for this at their work…..work would work for everybody! Men are the bosses and decision-makers more often than not. When more men at the top (and “bottom) collectively say, “we won’t work until work works for us”, companies will automatically earn more, because their employees will be happier, healthier, present, less burnt out/overwhelmed/sick/tired, and inherently be more productive and creative. When the company earns more, employees earn more, (may not be direct shot—and I know trickle down economics doesn’t always work). Try it. I know for a fact it’s true because I live it… Read more »
No truer words. The great equalizer….time…how you view it is what ultimately determines the value of your life! Be careful of the time…