My daughter turns 7 today! I’m a 100% biased parent but my daughter is a badass and I love watching her grow up.
She has virtual school today but I’ll be making her lunch (grilled cheese and tomato soup), jumping on the trampoline and practicing gymnastics skills with her. This is the day she said she wanted with me and I’m excited to spend so much time with her today.
When I first got out of the Army in 2014 Maggie was 6 months old. I was teaching 3-4x a month as an instructor for MobilityWOD. This was usually a Friday to Monday trip. I got a chance to travel around the world teaching and meet some amazing people. I also missed a lot of important events and multiple family birthdays.
Looking back, I regret saying yes to teaching the weekends we had birthdays and family events. At the time, I was in straight survival mode. I had left a stable income and didn’t know if I could make it working just for myself. I would take any course I could get because at least I knew I could make some money for teaching.
When my daughter was 4, she started to get really sad when I would leave. She would be sad for days before I would leave and would beg me to stay. Even though I’d only be gone for a few days, to my family it felt like an eternity.
I started really decreasing my teaching events at that time and now I do no more than 4 work trips a year. Often times, I try to bring my family with me if possible.
I’ll never get the time I lost missing my kids birthdays back. I don’t even know how much I made for those teaching events but whatever it was, it wasn’t worth it.
Time is where it’s it and in particular say over what you do with your time.
We have a simple rule in our house when looking at any decision or business opportunity. We ask ourself this one question.
Does saying yes to this allow us to spend more meaningful time with our friends and family?
If the answer is no, we pass. If the answer is yes, we give it further consideration. That one question has dramatically simplified my life and improved my relationship with my family.
Doing something on your own can start with just wanting to make more money than working for someone else. Ultimately, what you’ll realize is that it’s all about freedom. Freedom to work on the things you love. Freedom to work from where you want to live. Freedom to never miss the most important times with your family.
The only things better than time might just be red velvet cake and I’ll be enjoying a big piece of that with Maggie tonight!
Have a great weekend!
