Business Books vs Home Life Books
While reading Scaling People, specifically this passage:
“The conversation then turned to how the person might mitigate these patterns in future meetings, which was the conversation we needed to have so they could thrive at work.”
I thought how—at least in the environment around me—people seem much more focused on improving at their job instead of improving at home—what kind of partner and parent they are.
Why is that? The most obvious answer, to me, is that improving at work has effects you can literally bank on: being promoted and getting a raise.
Improving at home has benefits as well, but they’re mostly long-term and could be seen as boring: you get stable and fulfilling relationship for the long run, things you will cherish the most when you’re old rather than cherish them now. Although they don’t hurt in the present, their absence can be mitigated by other things: it doesn’t go well with your partner, you can get another while you’re young. Your son doesn’t speak to you, you can speak to your colleagues, who share a silent offspring with you.
But when you’re old, you don’t get a new partner that easily. You’ll hardly get someone to speak to if your children park you in a hospice.
How can we put more emphasis into improving our long-term outlook of a fulfilling life?