Hey, You. Go Home.

We put a lot of stock in the idea of being better. Better leaders, better team members, - just better. There is a great deal of value in the idea of building ourselves up to face the wilds of the marketplace - and there is a need to fortify the next generation of leaders that will take our society to the next level.

There is also value in leaving that at work and just going home.

Those of us that have families have as much of a responsibility to grow that aspect of our lives as we do building a successful business or becoming the leaders we know we can be. At the end of the day, your legacy will be built by those lives you are entrusted with shaping. In our culture, it’s easy to buy into the lie that if you can achieve the next level, it will make your life, and by extension the lives of your family, better. And you may be able to parlay those extra dollars into a newer toy for your little one - but you know what they’d rather have?

They’d rather have you.

This is not news. A tale as old as time, we feel pressure to always be performing - to constantly outperform ourselves, and by doing better in our careers bring the best to our families. But in our haste to succeed, we sometimes get sucked into the vortex - neglecting those that mean the most to us. We’ve been fighting this battle since we began recording history - the Greek Philosopher Theophrastus said in the fourth century B.C. that “The most valuable thing a man can spend is time.” But as much as we are attuned to the idea that our relationships are the most important aspect of our lives, they can easily be the first thing we ignore when things get hectic.

So what’s to do? This is usually the point in these kinds of blogs where we give you practical advice on how to hack your schedule so that you can get out there and crush it on all levels. And this is our practical advice:

Go home. Kiss your spouse and play with your kids. Take them to a movie. Turn off your phone. Check in with that friend you haven’t seen in a month. Host a dinner party.

When your relationships are in good shape, you’ll be in good shape. A truly great leader is the one that understands that when it all goes away, we are merely the lives we touch.

Seriously. Go home.