JUGGLING ACT

If January 2011 is any indication of how the rest of the year is going to go then I better hold on cause I'll be riding 2011 like a big fat dildo.

2010 ended in a very big white flash. No, it wasn't one of the flashes from LOST, even thought that would have been way more exciting, but a huge snow storm that crippled the Northeast in a way that only people who have seen the movie The Day After Tomorrow could understand. One of my co-workers in NYC told me that on his way to work the morning after the storm he saw grown men fighting in the street over a taxi cab. This wasn't that shocking as I've witnessed business women push and fight over their place in line at the Union Square Whole Foods.

I promised myself that I would post in my blog everyday but work has been so overwhelming that when I get home for the day I can barely say my name. I usually manage to get out, "Dinner. Please. Help," and that is about it. I'm having a hard time juggling my work life and my home life and it is starting to take a strong grip on who I truly am.

How do people do it? How do people have successful careers and still manage to be normal people at home? I am looking for that sweet spot where I can come home and place work on the shelf, put the Blackberry on silent, an enjoy what is really important to me. 

Is it possible to give 50% at work and 50% at home? Maybe 70-30 would be smarter with the larger portion of my life going towards my home life because when it's all said and done - I sleep at home - not at work. This is something that seems to be an issue for me. I have spent most of my working career in a management or leadership role but this position is something completely different. I feel like I spend most of my time counseling people than I do supervising them. If only I could charge by the hour like my therapist does.

Maybe the first thing I need to do is leave work at work. Instead of bringing it home and trying to place it on the shelf at home I should lock it up in my desk drawer and walk out with a clean slate. If there is anything I need to talk about regarding work I should do it on the telephone during the car ride home. If I lived by this practice I could walk into the house and focus on being home and not the aggravations of the day.

I will work on those two possibilities and we shall see how it goes. I think that if I continue in this position for the next four years I should qualify for my bachelors in counseling.

They say that on the job training is the best way to go.