In
the Spotlight
Personal Vignettes
from the book, Time
Off for Good Behavior
Lisa B.,
35, worked her way up the ladder in the glamorous
world of travel. While 15 years of non-stop
work were a plus for her paycheck, she
realized that her chances for love were
diminishing every
year she said, "not yet."
A moment of truth for Lisa occurred when she was 35. Ten years before, a man
she had dated after college showed up on her doorstep, but her new career was
already too crowded to spend time with him. When her post-college boyfriend
showed
up again a decade later, she was still too tired and busy to spend time with
him. At that point, Lisa had her ‘Ebeneezer Scrooge” moment.
“Suddenly I had this flashback, and he became my boyfriend of the past.
And I looked at the reality of my life.” She compared her current life
to her past and realized, “I’m still exhausted, I’m overworked.
I don’t have a relationship. I don’t have children. And then I
went fast-forward…and thought, He could come back ten years from
now and what will have changed then?”
As we race through our lives, how often do we stop to compare our
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lives of five
or ten years ago to now… and then project forward? We rarely pause to ask
if we are in a rut, or repeating patterns of behavior we don’t like and
set a boundary we will not charge beyond.
Lisa used this revelation to decide to leave an unhappy
job and she’s since
put together multiple businesses that are more rewarding than what she left.
But more than that, she learned, “It was just like somebody cleared the
smoke out of my reality. If you’re knee-level, or waist-level or neck-level
into whatever you’re doing, what will be that Scrooge moment for you? (By
the way, the boyfriend’s back in her life… as a
friend.)
Excerpt from Time Off for Good Behavior, Copyright © 2005
by
Mary
Lou
Quinlan |
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" A
must-read
for every high- achieving woman who's working
more and enjoying it less.
If you've ever wanted to step
out of the rat
race and start living your dreams, this book is the
perfect guide."
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—
Carole Black
President,
Lifetime TV
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