Be Home More Often
Years ago I often worked away from home and stayed one or more nights a week in hotels. Nothing used to make me sadder than my youngest son on the telephone saying "Are you coming home tonight Daddy?" and him not grasping the fact that I was ten hours away or even thousands of miles away. No hotel room offers real comfort, just a brief respite from the traveling and a place where you can collect your thoughts together in peace. Of course, you can be attracted to and even seduced by the hotels and the restaurants and the sense of being looked after by people who are simply doing their job when they serve you, but so what? What difference does it make to your life that you receive good service in a hotel, but you miss a child's birthday, or you don't get to attend the Parent Teachers evening, or a special anniversary is impossible to attend because of another schedule, meeting or travel requirement imposed by somewhere beyond your control.
Getting home to be greeted by the family is always a joy, even if they are unsure when you might be going away again. If in doubt, get home soon. You never get this time again with those you love.
Make a commitment to yourself to enjoy the time with those you love and then spend as much time as possible doing just that. At this stage so early in the book I am not going to suggest you make a radical change to your work or profession in order to spend more of your time in alignment with what you believe in and what your values are. But I will ask you to work out your beliefs and your values and to ask yourself if you are even close to them in your day to day activity.
Memories are made and created by the way that you live your life moment by moment so use the moments of today to build a picture you will be able to look back on with love and gratitude.
Seek out the people who seek to be with you and spend as much time as you can in their company. Each of you will always be grateful that this is what you chose to do. Your regrets will be less when you look back on these times. And by the way, these times are the only ones you have.