WORK. LOVE. PLAY

“Change is hard because people overestimate the value of what they have- and underestimate the value of what they may gain by giving that up.” –Flight of the Buffalo (1994)

So it was about a year ago that I decided to pursue this move to Germany. It is interesting to look at it in retrospect because it seems now that it was something that I definitely needed and wanted, but I am still not sure how I got here.

Don’t get me wrong, I am glad I am here. It is definitely a completely different life than I led a year ago, but all that change does lead to a lot of introspective on what I want out of life ultimately. I remember watching something on ted.com that really hit me (for those of you that don’t utilize ted.com… you should. It is an awesome sight with some great lectures, speeches, and whatnot.)

The speech that was a game changer was the following:

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/doris_kearns_goodwin_on_learning_from_past_presidents.html

I do recommend that everyone takes the time and watches the video.

Doris Kearns Goodwin gives a speech regarding a quote by Erik Erikson where he says that the richest and fullest lives balance three components WORK. LOVE. PLAY.

I decided a year ago that it was necessary to balance those three realms and today I am still trying to balance those three.

I knew that I was favoring WORK a year ago and that did scare me. I am a fairly happy-go-lucky person so I always make room for some play, but play and love weren’t as prevalent a year ago. I was happy with working that much but wonder if it would have repercussions later in my life.

It was not an easy decision to leave Minnesota. I thoroughly enjoyed my job and the people I worked with along with the patients, but I did feel that my life had become my job and there was no balance in life. Besides the fact that life had become my work and I was content putting everything I had into work, I missed my sister and her constant companionship. Now I realize I was at a crossroads in my life and I decided to change things up to see what would come of it.

It is interesting because I am the kind of person that I will always listen to what people have to say and then some things really stay with me. I asked a lot of people their opinion on whether or not I should make this move. There are two people’s feedback that I really remember. 1. My older brother told me that I needed to treat my job like a job and not a lifestyle that if I continued to go in the direction that I was going then I would burn out and then I was pretty much no good to no one. 2. My brother in law, Josh, said that it would mean the world to him if I was in Germany when he was deployed so that someone was here for Gretchen.

Because I am sorta rationale and sorta caring of those I love, I decided this move would be a good thing for me. So I moved to Germany to be with my sister and Josh and make my job an 8 hour portion of my life and focus on other aspects of my life. And here I am today.

Now it is funny because I think that my life is in full tilt towards PLAY, which is a lot of fun but less fulfilling in a way. I am traveling a lot and seeing the world and work is just something that I do for eight hours each day… I don’t bring anything home which is unbelievable to me. I do make the joke now, though, that I am digressing in life because I feel that I am not utilizing my intelligence as much here and not challenging myself. I might be having my second college experience while here in Germany and I am not sure how I feel about that. But I am not as stressed and making great memories that I will definitely remember for the rest of my life.

The purpose of this post was more for me to take a walk down memory lane of the emotions that I have felt in the past year. It was my Doogie Howser post to sum up what I have felt the last year and to reflect on how much my life has changed.

I do love lessons that you can learn vicariously through other people and I do think the Doris Kearns Goodwin does a great job of using examples from the presidents on how balance is important in life. I am just still trying to learn how to balance WORK. LOVE. PLAY.

Any thoughts or insight?

There is one more quote from Doris Kearns Goodwin that I really love, "Everyone is broken by life, but some people are stronger in the broken places" -Ernest Hemingway