A phone conversation with a friend yesterday…
John: Hello?
Steve: Good morning.
John: Hey, Steve. How are you?
Steve: Hi, John.
John: Everything okay?
Steve: Yeah.
John: Good.
Steve: Yeah. I’ve got a busy day. Normally this is my golf day, but unfortunately I’ve got too much work to do.
John: You’re lucky to have a golf day. I live on a golf course and I’ve got a day timer note once a month to play golf and I just never seem to be able to do it, you know?
Steve: See, you put that stuff on your calendar and then it’s basically ironclad.
John: Yeah.
Steve: You’ve got to take the time off. When I’m in town, I rarely break that.
John: Yeah.
Steve: It just so happened, I have a perfect storm of deadlines happening right now. And you know I’ve been on the road and I’m on the road again next week.
John: Yep.
Steve: So it’s unfortunate, even though it’s going to be 76 degrees today… You know I’m just going to close the drapes…
John: Yeah, there you go. Yeah.
Steve: … not look outside…
John: Yep.
Steve: … and not think about it.
John: Well, I admire you for being able to keep that enforced. But man, when you’re doing your own thing it’s hard because there’s always something else to chase or something else to do, you know?
Steve: That’s is one of the things I learned a long time ago, and this really goes back to are you working for yourself or are you working for other people. Otherwise your world revolves around them and if that’s the way it is, then you just have a job.
John: Yeah, that’s right.
Steve: Part of why I created my rules and one of the things that I learned was you’ve got to block time for yourself on your calendar. You’ve got to put vacations on your calendar. You know you’ve got to set days aside. You’ve got to put them on there and you’ve got to do it; because, you know what? There will always be too much to do.
John: Yeah, that’s true. I think that’s true of busy people. Busy people are never bored, you know. There’s always something to do. I mean, smart people are never bored. But somehow my wife and I have let the last two years slip by without more than three days off, you know and that’s bad.
Steve: You’ve got it, man. I’m telling you.
John: Yeah, I know, you’re right.
Steve: If you don’t do that, you’re making a big mistake.
John: I agree.
Steve: You’re making a really, really big mistake.
John: Yeah.
Steve: That’s so important.
John: Yeah, you’re right.
Steve: I might have to blog about you.
