Making Time for Family

Making Time for Family

The busier you get, the harder it is to “make” time for what’s important.

A Bonding Project: The 1937 International

My son started a project truck: a 1937 International. I am proud of him for what he has accomplished so far. He has a ton of work to do, but it has been great for us to bond and work together.

Prioritizing Family Over Business Advice

I had a business coach recently tell me, “You’re spending too much time on fun stuff and need to focus on the business.” Needless to say, he is no longer my coach.

You see, he has a dog, a girlfriend, and lives in an apartment in a big city. He has no clue what is important to me because he doesn’t have it.

The whole reason I work is to provide for my family, not to fund awesome trips or late nights at the bar. It’s so I can spend time where it is really important: with my wife and kids.

The Value of Time

It hit me hard the other day: my son is 14, and we only have him in our house for about another 4 years. Then he is going to want to go do his own thing. My youngest son will only be in our house for about 10 years until he wants to move out and start doing his thing.

10 years isn’t very long, and 4 years will be gone before we know it.

Making Family Time a Priority

Here’s what we are going to do to make sure that we spend time where we need to:

First, I made family time a priority. When I can, I stop in the early afternoon to spend time working with each kid on a project they want. My oldest son’s project is the 1937 International. My next sons enjoy playing video games. My daughter loves crafting and working in the garage on a go-cart, and my youngest son is building a go-cart as a family project from an old lawnmower.

Yes, it takes time to do these projects, but it’s worth it. Every second of every day that I spend with them is a better investment than being able to give them $$$.

Time with My Wife

Let’s not forget about my wife. It was a tough adjustment from working for someone else to working for ourselves. We both had to learn how to handle it. What I realized was that I needed to stop more often and spend time with her. We started going on lunch dates at least once a month and spending time talking about things other than the business in the middle of the day.

The best thing we did was to start dreaming of the future together. There was a time where she had her dreams and I had mine; they didn’t always match. Now we dream together and work together to accomplish those dreams.

Our Family Dream: Traveling Together

One of our dreams is to travel more as a family. We have always strived to give our family experiences, not stuff. So our newest goal is, before our oldest is out of the house, to travel to all 50 states and at least one foreign country (not Canada or Mexico). We are well underway on accomplishing that.

Making Priorities a Priority

The moral of this whole thing is that you have to make your priorities a priority. It’s not always going to be easy, and sometimes it might seem almost downright impossible.

Find ways to make it work, though. You might have to be a little creative, but I know you can do it.

Get out there and spend some time doing what matters.