I always worked for "the man"...never had a problem he didn't fix, and he looked out for me....but I am "that man".

Nice landing...or lift-off from just a few months back Rick! I've.seen it play out so many times...funny how that works out. Sux when you're going through (or watching) it though...winners win ;)

How do they measure a cultures greatness?

What single item in the history of western civilization has been attributed to saving more lives than anything else?

No roads, no runways, yeah you will get to that target, not!;)

Yeah, that whole work/life balance thing. Over achievers, by their very nature, get this one all wrong. Americans, for the most part (compared to other nationalities) have this one all wrong. The problem is, we are "rewarded" for it, at least with the kinds of "rewards" we are conditioned to seek. There are other rewards to be had, however, and it took me an entire career to begin to realize that. When I decided I no longer wanted to dedicate enough of my life to the pursuit of the former, but rather it was time to pursue the latter, I simply retired. I miss the work, I miss the people, and yes, I do sometimes miss the nature of reward that came with it. But, boy, I have to say, the rewards I am reaping today have been well worth the change.

Boy, do I understand. That has always driven me, but doing it for someone else didn’t last long. Early on I decided if I was going to put 110% into something I would do it for my own company. Didn’t take long to learn succeeding on your own took 150% but I have no regrets.

Perhaps related, I just read a report on how many American workers do not take all of their allotted vacation time - the startling part was how many don’t take all of their PAYED vacation time.

I retired with several hundred hours of vacation in the bank, as did my wife. We did get paid for it, at our current salaries, but in retrospect - what the hell were we thinking? Perhaps we would have worked longer had we "paced" ourselves a little better. This is, as you surmised, an all too common story.

I think when we get to our low-mid 50s age wise, we start to have those retirement thoughts just like we did in the Spring of our senior year of high school (senioritis). We start to question why we are being worked so hard, when others slack off, we start to value our time with family, and free time more than a big paycheck, we question why we no longer have time/energy for the things we once loved to do.

Good luck with your decisions, but know that you aren't alone.

I've never been afraid of much in life. Never held back. Very much an adrenaline junky for the first fifty years. Been working since I was thirteen years old, plus school and other pursuits, fixing the world etc. In 2015 my stress levels were high and I knew it. Tried to cull it back.

In 2016 my heart stopped three times in five weeks. Scared me more than anything. They never really found the cause and the problem was not an actual cardiac issue. No stroke or infarction. Treatment entailed aggressive hydration to "blow me up" with four to five liters of water and salt a day. Was not dehydration just not enough blood volume (hypovolemia) to keep the clock from cavitation and brain awake.

No damage but a couple of odd side effects. I don't like crowds or traffic at all now and inside a MRI machine I am now claustrophobic. Third MRI the machine malfunctioned, got hot and burned up some helium I was told. I exited the bore on those rails like a luge levitating before the tech even realized it was in overheat. Guess I have good reason to be uncomfortable.

When my cardiologist said to me "you died three times and lived to tell about it, welcome back" it changed everything and I mean everything. How I interact, how I think, how I respond, how I live my life now etc.

I have since reduced stress in my life considerably. The first was removal of toxic people including family members and people I work with along with other factors. Love my sisters but they are the most negative and miserable folks I know. I'm not pointing fingers at them, in fact I feel sorry for them but at the same time I accept what I allowed into my life. Everything is a crisis to them three to four times in a day everyday, every month and all year. The calls at all hours. I tried to talk to them about how they react to everything even mentioning therapy so they can cope better. I finally got to a point where I just don't interact with them much any more or answer calls. They seemed to have learned how to cope with life overnight out of thin air. Work is not so easy to change. I have a job to do and the people I interact with can be difficult and life draining. It is what it is! I now work smarter not harder. For this I had to change me.

Some people have tried to tell me get on with my life like nothing happened. Sorry it doesn't work that way because something did happen and my life is precious to me and those I care about. My perspective has changed completely. Good riddance to toxic and volatile people. I do worry in the back of my head will it happen again?

Then some have asked me what it was like? Well it starts like this -the most powerful adrenaline dump (which actually kept me alive) you will ever experience, then a little tunnel vision, then color in eyesight begins to change to black, greys and white, then everything dims and lights out, then zero time. -------------------- ------------ then one minute and 30 seconds or so pass and boom come back to life -----/\---/\----/\---tachycardic at 200bpm, then it settles down to 150bpm and finally about 90bpm over the next hour or so. Then comes the second adrenaline dump and then exhaustion. Not fun. Life will pass before you in a blink of a second before you come back. Things will race through your mind and nurses will really fly. The second time I was connected to a 12 lead flight recorder, third time a 5 lead black box. The playback is a bit rough to digest.

I will take jumping out of a plane, a mile long zip line run or a fast road any day over what I went through. It will change you. It changed me.


I will be fifty four in June. My life is quiet, peaceful and fun. Some people treat me different. I'm not looking for empathy. Some of my friends found it weird and I no longer hear from and that's fine too. My best friends treat me exactly the same. We have good conversations about health, prostates and what scares us along with the good things in life. I'm looking for life and good people.

I have adopted a sort of mantra and live by these words now. " If you want more you can have your more, in fact you can have all the more you want, just don't make your more my more". I cant fix the world, that's Gods job. I have also learned saying NO to the boss can be a very powerful. Its also a motivator.

What did I learn? Don't give up your lunch, it starts there. If you work for someone or company give a fair day work for fair pay and then leave. You will not get any of your time back by working extra time or commuting four hours a day in traffic. If you are self employed or a chronic workaholic be careful and don't over do it. I know personally too many people or business owners who have hypertension or take heart medication. Life is long, play hard and get dirty.

Nailed that one.