3 Ways to Get Your Life Back

I looked at the executive's desk and noticed something weird.

A small framed picture sat alone on her desk with a sign in it that said "Eat Lunch."

"Why do you have a sign that says 'Eat Lunch'?" I asked.

"Because I never eat lunch," she replied.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Too busy. My job is all-consuming. If I am ever able to eat lunch, I'll know that I got my life back. In the meantime, I just eat one of these snack bars between meetings," she said as she showed me a pathetic half-eaten tan bar in a wrapper. She shrugged with a gesture that said, "What else am I supposed to do?"

This scene horrified me. When this happened, I was just starting out in my career, two decades ago. I felt sad that a perfectly capable business leader seemed so powerless in the fight to reclaim her life back from her job.

Work is not supposed to be like that.

It is not supposed to suck the life out of you.

I have, as a hobby, made a point of collecting tactics that successful leaders use to seize their lives back from their careers.

You're reading 3 Ways to Get Your Life Back, originally posted on SMARTthoughts for Leaders and copyrighted by Dr. Geoff Smart.