I’m wrapping up the end of my latest Father & Son day and have had quite a lot of fun. We’re in Santa Barbara today and I had the distinct pleasure of watching our son while my wife spent the day photographing a wedding. He’s almost eight and a half months and is growing a lot (he’s 20 lbs. now!). He might just be having an early height growth-spurt, but it appears that he is definitely going to be much taller than me. I also think he has more spunk and curiosity then I did, and wonder if that is going to make the “teen” years more or less pleasurable than they were for my parents.

Somewhere in the middle of taking a long walk, climbing the stairs together, napping together, playing with all of his toys, and chasing after our dog all afternoon, I had quite a bit of time to reflect on life, family, and work. I’m a fairly content person, but I haven’t smiled as much as I did today in quite a while. I’m sure any parent can empathize as the littlest things will make your mouth crease.

What I realized today, beyond the fact that I haven’t been smiling as much as I’d like to lately, is that purpose in one’s life and career is not only important for direction and sanity, but perhaps also essential for the happiness and cohesion of your family. Personally, I see every moment that I’m focused on work (physically and mentally) as time I could be spending with my wife and son. And if I’m going to be spending a large chunk of my life focused on work, wouldn’t I want it to be so fulfilling as to warrant the time and emotional commitment?

Accordingly, a lot of my contemplation time today centered on finding more purpose in my professional life. In the process, I came up with a few questions that helped guide me a bit:

• Is my career simply about making money, or does it also adhere and advance what I am passionate about?
• Is there anything else I can be doing professionally, in relation to the things I care deeply about, that I am not already doing?
• Can I incorporate more work with non-profits or more purpose-focused companies?
• Is there anything about my professional life that contradicts my personal beliefs?
• And most importantly: Is the time I spend working worth the time away from my family?

TAGS: Purpose | Work/Life Balance | Career | Family

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 22nd, 2006 at 8:25 pm and is filed under On Being A Father.... You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.