In the olden days when I used to develop programming for Eclectic Music, I asked one of my best summer camp teachers to help me design the following year’s summer camp offerings.

As good as he was at leading summer camp, he didn’t really like doing it. He was ready to move on, but hadn’t really made the identity shift yet. So when we would come up with an idea, I would sense reluctance from him. I’d say, “It doesn’t have to be you who does it! You don’t actually have to lead the camp.”

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I find myself these days with more free time than I used to have.

I am still getting used to it. Time still feels scarce. I am accustomed to looking at the clock and feeling a sense of panic, no matter what time it is. These perceptions and habits I have with respect to time are carried over from my old life, and it’s an ongoing process to establish new ones.

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When I first started working with small business owners, I was a little intimidated.

I had been a music major in college, after all, and I’d spent the larger part of my career working with kids. I wasn’t sure how valuable my contributions would really be.

Well, imagine my delight when I discovered that the needs of adults aren’t actually that different from the needs of twelve-year-olds. The fart jokes are fewer and farther between, more’s the pity. But what we require to stay on track, feel good, and succeed is pretty much the same no matter how old we are.

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When I was in my early twenties, I took a job teaching public school for a very low salary.

Frankly, I could have made more waiting tables, which was the other skill set I possessed.

The challenge was that I’d be working in an area with a shortage of affordable housing. The additional challenge was that I was a bit of a snob who had grown up on the coast and wanted to stay there. I didn’t want to move inland, far from my family (and for that matter, my job). What was I going to do?

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I could work a lot less than I do, theoretically.

Having worked hard to assemble an incredible team, there’s a lot of stuff I could hand off in addition to that which has already been delegated.

Moreover, there are things that I’m doing that I didn’t have to say yes to.

Where I’m going with this is not some humblebrag meditation on how I do my work because I want to and not because I have to. No, instead I want to call myself out: I do the amount of work I do because it makes me feel safe, and I don’t know what else I would be doing with my workday.

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