The family and I decided to take a trip to Kauai. We were torn between going to Honolulu, which we have been before, or Kauai, which we have never been before and offers different attractions than Honolulu. When we first landed on the island, we were immediately shocked how much green and more vegetated the island was than O’ahu. The drive to the hotel was so scenic and beautiful. We enjoyed dinner at one of the local restaurants and then everyone but me turned in for the night.

Once again, when everyone goes to sleep on vacation, I pull out my laptop to ensure everything at work was caught up. The fact remains that in order to pay for the vacations and lifestyle we live, I must work 2-3 jobs just to keep our head above the water. Also, in order for me and the family to whisk away for 1-3 day vacations, it must appear to my jobs that I am still working efficiently and effectively. To do this, I must complete as much work as I can while I sit on the other side of the world.

One of the obvious advantages of being able to work remotely at my jobs was the ability to login anywhere in the world and complete my daily tasks. One of the biggest downfalls of this was being able to login anywhere in the world to complete my daily tasks. When I was out on military leave for 3-months I reduced my civilian workload from consuming 100% of my day to about 20% of my day. This was a significant decrease in civilian work stress, which attributed to the lowering of my overall stress. I enjoyed it. For once, in a really really long time, I wasn’t looking at my Blackberry every second checking emails from work. Everyday I got to my room I didn’t feel a need to login to my work and check if everything was working properly. I was able to concentrate on one thing and one thing only, my military training.

So as everyone sleeps in our room in Kauai, I am laying in bed thinking about what “fires” I need to put out or address at my main job and also my part-time consulting job. The thoughts of my future and short-term goals also engulf my thoughts and once again I feel myself stressing out and not being able to just enjoy myself on vacation and ultimately life itself.

Manage what you can while still enjoying the activities of today. Enjoy life, don’t forget that nothing else matters except for your family. The kids are only young once and this experience will not last forever. This is why my new immediate goal is to find that ‘one’ job! That ‘one’ job that provides fulfillment and reinvigorates that passion I should have in what I do.