Your Work Is Not Your Worth
Your value does not equal your output.
I remember when the very most important part of my week had to do with sitting in an office less than six feet away from the guy I directly reported to and listing off all the “work” I had gotten done since the last time we did this.
Those listicles had to do with measuring how engaged people in our shared office were, how active they were on our private/internal communication channels, and how receptive they seemed to the idea that their office was their second family.
I typically spent about 50 hours each week focused on these goals. In other words, I spent fifty hours every week for years doing something other than interacting with my partner of 15 years, or walking my dog. Fifty hours every week not calling my mom, my brother, my nieces or nephews.
Fifty hours wishing I had time to read anything on my massive Goodreads “Want to Read” shelf.
Fifty hours not exercising. Fifty hours in a usually sedentary position, at a desk in an office with no windows, completely unaware, even, of what the weather was like outside.
Fast forward to today… and I can spend all day reading my book if I want to. I talk to my mom, whose memory and cognition is failing — probably due to an entire nurse’s career spent putting other people’s needs…