When I worked I was dull and when I retired I became insufferable … it’s official!

But, there is a way out: it’s called the Work/Life Balance and we all want it, but none of us really have any idea how to get it 🙂

Which brings me back to a conversation I had with a friend of mine after showing him our new house a few nights ago (extensive renovations will be underway, soon):

My friend, a doctor – an internist, family doctor, or general practitioner as he would variously be called depending on which country you are in – confided that he originally wanted to become a surgeon.

But, he stopped his studies – after many years of trying, failing, then retrying to make the ‘cut’ when his wife suggested that he draw a pie chart of how he was spending his time.

Here’s his chart:

Typical working student; most of his day taken up with work, then study with very little left for sleep and virtually no R&R (rest and recreation: that’s where ‘family’ comes in) …

… she then asked him to draw a similar chart of how he would LIKE his typical day to look, and this is what he drew:

It doesn’t take a genius – or a budding surgeon – to realize that what he really wanted was a BALANCED LIFE: work, sleep, family.

My friend almost immediately gave up his surgery aspirations with absolutely NO REGRETS and now runs a successful suburban practice that gives him a life where he can help people, his family, and himself in almost equal quantities.

This leads me to think: why do we live the first pie chart, if not to get to the second? Perhaps, money is not really the object, after all …

… or, maybe you need to live the first for a defined period (your Date) in order to achieve a preset amount (your Number) so that you can live the life you really need (your Life’s Purpose)?

Now I better go and take some of my own advice … 😉 [AJC: Really, I just added this sentence: I have to go for a walk to the letterbox with my wife … whoo hoo!]

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