50 50 Work Fun System

Every summer, as the weather starts to warm, my music taste shifts. Normally I am a huge reggae fan. But I tend to shift to the laid-back summer country music that was popularized by Jimmy Buffett and continues through Zach Brown Band, Kenny Chesney, Jesse Rice, Brian Kelley and many more.

The music gets me in the summer mood. The positive, yet melancholy vibe is a welcome and familiar friend after a long, cold winter in Ohio. Any road trip or flight to paradise will include these songs and they recur in my life like Christmas music that comes every summer instead of December.

Because I’ve held on to this tradition through the years, even my wife and kiddos began to like this music and refer to it as “dad’s music.”

When I heard on the morning of September 2nd that Jimmy Buffett passed away, sadness and confusion set in. I was sad to see someone pass away that had such an impact on my life. Despite never knowing him personally, his music had left its mark on me, and I am forever grateful.

I knew in a few hours, when the kiddos awoke, I would need to let them know the news. They are old enough to understand death but young enough to hold the innocence of youth.

As I read news articles, trying to clear the confusion, I read that Jimmy Buffett once said that life should be 50/50 work and fun. He said that is the ratio he keeps.

This sounds like very powerful advice hidden in a silly comment. I’ve found myself falling too far on one side or another. In college it was 99% fun with little meaningful effort towards work. When my kiddos were born, I shifted and at times seemed to have 1% fun and 99% work.

The times that were balanced weren’t by accident. When I let things happen naturally, I lose this balance. Instead, I’ve found that I need to have the systems and habits to keep me disciplined but also that keep me relaxed and enjoying life. In other words, the systems keep me balanced.

The passing of someone we’ve known in life or someone we’ve grown to “know” from their artistic and public endeavors always presents a time to reflect.

It reminds us that this is a temporary experience for all of us. None are above the birth, life, death cycle. This is yet another reminder that the world today is not the world in the 90’s. It is constantly evolving.

We get to ride this evolution. In fact, we are forced to ride this evolution. There is no turning back, no rewinding the tape, or picking up the needle on the record of life.

This is why I always push the idea that life should be strategic. It doesn’t mean every second is planned out. It means that we live our lives deliberately. We live them according to what is important to us and what we desire from life, the work and the fun, the trips and the late nights at the office. All of it fits neatly into “life” and we get the most from it by being deliberate.

Change, or rather evolution, is inevitable. We have today but aren’t guaranteed tomorrow. We have the ability to decide the direction for our life. We need to take responsibility for everything we are and everything we have so we gain control over our future. Then we need to systematize. While we are at it, let’s take a note from Buffett and make sure we save 50% for the fun.