Getting to #3
I plan to follow-up next week on some great information passed along by some IABC colleagues. Today’s entry is short. It’s 5:45 pm on Friday, and I’m about to head home. That became more important to me after I heard about the current situation of some friends.
A couple who are pretty close to my wife and me are going through a very tough time in their 15+-year marriage. The husband is concerned about the time that his wife spends volunteering for a very worthwhile organization (not IABC, by the way). The husband believes that his wife’s priorities are:
1) The organization
2) Her children
3) Her spouse
and that she never gets to #3.
An IABC colleague sent me some great information yesterday, along with a note asking how I find time to write these entries and do the other things in my life. The truth is that I’ve been taking time that might otherwise have been spent with my children and my wife. (And it doesn’t count to be in the same house with them if I’m sitting at a computer while they’re doing something else.)
This IABC Cafe experience is extremely valuable to me, and I plan to continue to contribute to these posts. But right now, it’s Friday night, and I’m leaving to get to #3.
Stop reading this and get to your #3 as well. Have a wonderful weekend with someone you love.
Tom Keefe, ABC
August 22nd, 2005 at 10:02 am
Excellent reminder, Tom. And good for you for recognizing your priorities and sticking to them. No organization is worth sacrificing your personal life.
Just an observation along these lines: I’ve noticed that the communication style and skills people bring to the workplace often reflect the communication style and skills they employ in their personal lives. That is, the boss who ignores his employees, or treats them like they’re inferior, or who believes information is power and therefore keeps everything to himself, or [insert your favorite scenario here] very often displays the same behaviors in his relationships with family.
Perhaps moving #3 to #1 would have a positive effect on #1 and #2.
August 22nd, 2005 at 12:24 pm
I’m refreshed from a great weekend of spending time with the family–with particular attention to #3 (who was #1 over the weekend).