took a break from the blog last week because I had to. This was my first full week with all 3 jobs in place and I just didn’t have the capacity to
write my beloved blog. I think the reason for my lack of mental energy had to do with me not getting to spend as much time with my wife and daughters. And that actually leads me to the 3rd Commandment in my series The 10 Commandments of Supporting Your Family:
Draw on the energy of your family or you’ll never have enough energy.
What’s the difference between a workaholic and a supportaholic? (I think I just coined this one, pending Urban Dictionary approval) For the workaholic there will never be enough work. Never enough money and the reason is: their energy comes from work and not from home. Not from their family. Now, they may complain about work (and they usually do) but they would never trade it for more time with the family. As Gandhi said: “There’s enough for the needy but not enough for the greedy.” And the workaholic has an insatiable and greedy approach to their work.
The supportaholic is what us family people should strive to be, because the supportaholic is different. They will do whatever it takes to support their family. They’ll work overtime or multiple jobs (I’ve got 3+) to support the family, but it’s only done in response to the need for money and when the need is met those extra hours/jobs get dropped like a hot tamale. And in the meantime the energy to do all that extra work comes from the family.
All I have to do is look at how hard my wife is working to raise our daughters and her efforts at supporting the family, and that’s all the inspiration I need. A little time with my daughters, seeing their energy, their youth rubs off on me and I feel young again. Without them I wouldn’t be able to make it through my week. Without them what’s the point?
So while I have been accused of being a serial entrepreneur in the past, the new me, the TrackSuit CEO has realized where my energy and inspiration comes from. So right now I may look just like a workaholic, but I know that this is all just temporary and soon I’ll be back to a more manageable schedule and lifestyle. So TrackSuit Family: ‘hang in there’, and you Dear TrackSuit Readers: ‘please forgive my occasional blog posting hiccups, I’m sure my fellow supportaholics out there will understand.’
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In my experience, many workaholics become workaholics not because of some megalomaniac drive, but because they are expressly tring to avoid their families and homelife. It’s quite sad.
Qritiq: Good point about the avoidance. I think that’s a big problem especially with men, the need to zone out. They’re ‘on’ all day at work and when they get home all they want to do is tune out the family by playing video games or watching cable television. It is quite sad.