Balance applied

It's nearly 1:00am and I just finished my first of two nights trying to compete 3 weeks worth of MBA homework (last week and 2 courses for this week). My plan tonight was to work until about 4:00, get home shortly after 5:00, and then hide out somewhere to pound out some of the MBA homework.

This is not a good example of a balanced day.

As it was, I worked a bit later, until about 4:30. I then encountered a struggled colleague who I talked to for about 30 minutes in the back parking lot. Interestingly, I bet I've talked nearly 20 people off the perverbial "edge" in their life over the past couple of years. I'm not sure what it is that invites people to share with me their deepest concerns, anxieties, and frustrations, but I'm honored to be a listening ear and hopefully help them sort through some of that. Anyway, leaving downtown Minneapolis to go north at 5:00pm is not as fine as it might sound... I didn't get home until about 6:30. Then we had a great family dinner followed by about 40 minutes of Game Cube (me and my 7-year old daughter against my twin 11 year old boys).... my daughter and I got smoked! Then I checked some email, chatted with my wife, flipped on ESPNews to find out that the player from Buffalo might walk again, and before I knew it I was looking at 8:30pm.

I lost about 3.5 hours from what I thought would be homework & studying, but I gained 3.5 hours of relationship-building and family time. I'm grateful that even through these difficult seasons, I'm able to retain balance in life. Of course, here I sit at 1:00am needing to get up about 5:30 or 6:00, but my family knows they are a priority - more important that sleep I reckon.

I generally run with a pretty high octane motor, but there are times when the motor needs to run even a bit faster.... the past week and the week to come are examples of that. Through it all I am so grateful to have a family, friends, co-workers, mentor, and others who understand (at least in part) what makes me tick and love me anyway.