100 Business Days Out: Day 44 - Investment Time

Today was the first true day that i was able to follow through on the commitment that I had made to Patti that we would take Fridays and make them "P&R Play Days". Every Friday up to now has been overtaken by something that got in the way. But today we were able to carve the day out for us. Not that we did anything special. Even though the day was spent running errands and shopping together, it was a good return on investment day nonetheless. Over the years I have talked about the deposits and withdrawals that we make in our relationships. More often than not our work can become a source of consistent withdrawals without a lot of opportunities for deposits. So, we end up doing all we can to find ways to deposit attention, time and energy into our relationships in a way that doesn't interfere with our work. For me, this became increasingly difficult and if there was a balance sheet to refer to, I couldn't make it balance. So, now I am trying to make up for those lost times by doubling down on the time and flipping the priorities around. It is a good endeavor and there is definitely a return on the investment. The sad part is that it has taken me this long to come to the realization that I should have built the investment/deposit time into the regular routine years ago because those missed opportunities can never be replaced or reenacted. If you are reading this and this strikes you at all, I would suggest that you look at next week's calendar and find two hours that you can call your significant other right now and say "hey if we could spend two hours together next (blank) at (blank) time what would you like to do?". I think you will find it a worthy investment.