A client in Austin asked me why I was rushing to finish his fence line, and his simple question about the point of it all made me finally book that trip to Alaska I'd been putting off for 7 years.

I was complaining about a 12-hour day on his property when he just said, 'You know, the wood isn't going to rot if you take a Saturday off,' and that one line completely shifted how I view my own time versus just making money.

4 comments

4 Comments

stone.brian1mo ago

My dad worked 70 hour weeks his whole life and always said money was time. For years I believed him and burned myself out. That client in Austin is right though, the fence can wait. I finally took a real vacation last month and realized I had forgotten how to just sit still and be a person.

marksanchez1mo ago

Read an article about how we treat free time like a problem to solve instead of just letting it be. The writer said we've turned hobbies into side hustles and rest into another item on the to-do list. It really hit home, that feeling of forgetting how to just exist without a goal.

ray_martinez821mo agoTop Commenter

My buddy finally used his boat after fixing it for two years, said he just floated in silence for hours like a reset button.

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torres.thea22d ago

But that fence wood actually can rot, or the posts can shift. A job left half done often costs more later. That client's future self might be upset when a storm knocks a loose section into his garden. Sometimes the rush is about honoring a commitment before life gets in the way.