Why can't you separate house from work?

Can you remember your daddy? Most daddies I know now, who are friends of mine, they made their best effort to leave job behind them and just enjoy the freshness of an everyday growing family. However, a couple of months ago, one of them was telling me about a "torture" performed by his wife: when she arrives home, she tells him everything that happened at her job. EVERYTHING. Jokingly, he said it was like she was taking 8 hours to tell him what she went through her own 8 hours...

Well... is it really possible to leave aside job and just go and be a good dad or mummy, husband or wife? Or is it better to share with a partner or children what is going on at their job?

I have to tell you... No, you really can't leave aside your job, but you can do something...

We are whole people, with several areas to work about. We have our careers, hobbies, friends, families, our spiritual path, health concerns, and a big etc... What we do normally is focus and refocus; sometimes the refocus is too intense, and we end leaving something away for good, or forgetting something.

One proof of that is history: for centuries, people used to live at the same place they used to work, along with everything they used to. If the person was rich, even his or her place of devotion and health would be the same...

By trying to split ourselves in pieces, we get into a subtle form of stress, which takes up the form of boredom, dissatisfaction or the sense of being in a pressure cooker. In fact, traditionally family and friends were a big source of comfort when something went wrong at the work, and it is still there for those who are at school or when health is an issue.

But, to do what my friend's wife does... that is really torture!

A suggestion: work on the areas of your life through four different perspectives. I will be talking about that in my next post, but for now...

1. When you are engaged into something, like your work, just do it. Be flexible if some other area (your kids for instance) requested your attention, but otherwise, just be the winner you are.
2. After finishing something as a day at your job, take a short time for processing it. Instead of commuting or drink with some friends, sit down for a while and talk to yourself, understand what happened.
3. Look for something you have learnt that day, perhaps a good lesson of humility or a realization on how good you are at what you do. Enjoy that feeling.
4. Share the lesson, realization and whatever you acquired as an outcome of your day.

In that way, you will join the pieces of your life together, you will avoid boredom and the pressure. At the same time, other areas will be affected positively by that.

Try it yourself!