I guess I am really lucky because I have a job that pays well enough for me live pretty darn comfortably and yet doesn't suck up all my time. Sure I could be making more money but then I would mostly likely be in a job where I would have to work 60-80 hours a week, instead of my normal 40 hours. I worked for about 8 years straight like that and it was exciting but not very fun. I breathed and lived my job. I would come home at 10 pm, eat and go to sleep. I didn't have time for anything else. My only friends were the people I worked with and when I did relax, I totally overdid it. I was living from one extreme to the next.

But when I figured out there was more to life than getting a raise and promotion every year, I had to seriously think about finding a job that would still pay well but not eat up most of my time. I think I've found that, at least for now. Now that the transition wasn't difficult. During that first year, I freaked out and felt like a total corporate failure because I wasn't working 60-80 hours a week. What kind of corporate drone was I, if I wasn't living and breathing my job? But now that I'm used to it and finally appreciating the job of coming home at 6 pm, I can't imagine working those crazy work hours ever again.

I mean after all, nobody says on their death bed that they wished they had worked more hours at work. It's hard to get this concept, but it's totally true. If you don't set your life up to follow your dreams, your fantasies then on your deathbed you will be lying there and thinking about all the things you'd wish you'd done, all the fantasies and dreams you put aside because you were busy working too hard. And who wants that? How dang depressing! If I thought I'd be lying on my deathbed thinking horrible thought about what I didn't do in my life, I would kill myself today. I mean, what would be the point of living, why not get it over with now because at least I would have less regret.

This is my new mantra. Be proactive about avoiding misery now and in the future, especially on that dreaded deathbed!