A Diversified Life
Where did the time go? It’s a common question throughout life, but time seems to accelerate as we get older. Months turn into years, every day feeling like the last. We get the promotions or we don’t. The business takes off or it fails. Marriages grow stale, toddlers are suddenly young adults, and we’re left reflecting on how we’ve spent our time, especially around work. Was it worth it?
Call it a mid-life crisis if you like, but it’s sobering to realize we’ve given ourselves to work that hasn’t given us what we expected in return. All the while we’ve neglected the things that might have been more fulfilling. A Second Rodeo offers the hope of reconfiguring and reinvigorating our lives.
One of the fundamental principles of financial planning is to diversify–avoiding the proverbial “all our eggs in one basket.” Have you ever considered how diversified your time, energies, and attention are right now?
One of the exercises we work through with our coaching clients is an audit of sorts. We understand financial audits–going over the books to see that our money is where it’s supposed to be, that we are following the processes and guidelines we adhere to. Same thing, except we are auditing the true currency of our lives, our time and energy.
If you’re still finishing your primary career, you probably have a lot of eggs in the job basket. The following audit can prepare you to start thinking about diversifying right now. I’d encourage you to spend thirty minutes or so being ruthlessly honest with these questions and see what you discover.
1. How many hours a week do you spend commuting to, working at, or giving energy to your primary job? Include that extra hour or two of “catching up” on emails after dinner, the hours you spend thinking about work even when you’re not at work. There are 168 hours in a week. If you sleep eight hours a night (insert laughter here), that means 112 waking hours. If you’re working 60-70 hour weeks, that’s over half your waking hours. That’s a lot of hours to fill if you suddenly retire without a plan.
2. How many personal hobbies, activities, or interests do you have outside work that you spend at least 4 hours per week pursuing? With my younger clients, the most typical response is the time spent coaching or following their children’s activities. I’ve been in that season, and there’s satisfaction in supporting your kids. I also remember thinking on more than one occasion that every waking hour was given to work or family, with not a minute to call my own. That may not have been actually true, but it was my emotional reality.
3. Not counting immediate family, how many meaningful relationships do you have with people who are not connected to your work? Friendships become increasingly rare as we grow older. So many of our interpersonal interactions center around work in one form or fashion. Even a hobby like golf is often shared with clients and prospective clients, work associates, and business partners. Many of those relationships will drop off quickly when you close the door on your primary career. Where else will you build a network of relationships that matter?
4. How many hours per week do you spend on personal growth and development? This would include meditation and other spiritual practices, fitness, reading non-work-related materials, online courses, etc. Don’t be surprised if you discover a lot of deferred personal maintenance.
5. How many topics, not counting those related to work and family, do you feel knowledgeable about and engaged in? What we’re trying to identify are other areas of interest beyond work. Some follow sports, sometimes fanatically. The stereotype for male baby boomers is to develop a deep interest in military history. I don’t know why, but it’s a thing. For years I read several biographies a year. I would have said it was from an interest in history, but the whole truth was I was usually looking for great stories and examples to support my work in leadership development.
I’m not trying to say that being deeply interested in and passionate about your work is a bad thing. On the contrary, far too many of us find that our careers have become so all-consuming that we have nothing left with which to pursue other interests and passions.
We are the opposite of diversified.
I typically get some push back from clients about this exercise, perhaps for the same reasons that some postpone taking a hard look at their financial plans–we’d rather not know. This is hard work. Yet if you can face your reality honestly, you’ll have a better idea of exactly where and how your time and energy is currently being spent. Then you’ll have something concrete with which to make future decisions.
I have yet to meet a person who says, “I planned all along to let work take over my life.” It’s a gradual, subtle process, and we make it work until one day, we just can’t. Next time around, you can be intentional about how you spend the true currency of your life.
This is a process that takes time. In the meantime, with this audit in front of you, what’s one thing that is within your power to change today? It doesn’t have to be big but make it intentional. Even a small act of reestablishing your control over your life can bring some respite while you figure this out.
Good luck and let us know how we can help.
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