While the article may seem like six of one / half-dozen of the other at first glance, I love that the author spends time examining the problem. Things that hel

While the article may seem like six of one / half-dozen of the other at first glance, I love that the author spends time examining the problem. Things that help me have a "healthy relationship with my work": Communication with everybody. If a client asks for a change to something, it always takes more time and usually costs more money. I communicate that to the client as early as possible. If a weekend is coming up and I'm working on a big project, everybody involved is going to get a phone call from me. Not an email, a phone call. We talk, we empathize, and we feel better about resuming on Monday. Have a nice weekend! If I am about to have a very stressful day, I run my plans by my wife. She's has saved me literally hundreds of hours of off-hours work by saying, "I'm sure they'll understand if you just call them and explain X and Y." She is so good at bringing out the details and examining the situation for what it is. It works every time. Somehow my samurai work ethic is way too stubborn sometimes. I exercise my option to turn down projects as often as I want. Six years ago I stood above my twin daughters' headstone, somehow still thinking about a work project I had going on, and all of the drama was completely ridiculous compared to the big picture of life, family, and normal relationships. I looked up toward the distant mountains, said "it's not worth it," and things have been better ever since. That memory comes to mind whenever I have big decisions to make--is the cost of the happy-life-occlusion scenario worth it, in light of the simple things that fulfill my requirements in life? Anyway, great article. I would add that at some point, plenty of people decide to change their work and go through the entire upheaval again, re-answering all of these balance questions. I have a friend who is literally packing her things right now to leave home and become a missionary. The stress is evident on her face, but when she talks about her future, she's excited and seems fulfilled in some way. In a similar vein, I've had a few conversations with "retirees" who are extremely stressed about what they're about to enter into, but there's no way they're going back.