Life’s funny.

We all want a better Work/Life balance.

When you’re full-time in your career, you have no work/life balance, because you’re spending too much time working.

When you’re retired, you have no work/life balance, because you have no meaningful work to do.

That’s the predicament I found myself in a few years ago.

My answer was to stop worrying about balancing my life and start balancing my days.

I developed a simple framework for my days, which is:

• CENTER

• LOVE

• WORK

• PLAY

• LEARN

• GIVE

I start each day be having a few moments to center myself by meditation or prayer.

I make sure I have quality time each day with the people I love.

I take on just enough freelance writing assignments to keep my mind active and use my skills and domain knowledge to help my clients.

Recently, for play, I did something I never expected to do. I wrote a novel.

I spent my entire career being a storyteller as a marketer. Now I wrote something that I would enjoy reading myself.

I plan to self-publish “SEX WHISKEY,” a mystery novel set in the Hunt Country of Virginia this fall.

Having completed the novel, it has opened many new subjects for me to learn to take the book to market. I’ve always been committed to lifelong learning, but publishing the book will allow me to test how well I have learned.

I still devote a significant amount of each day in giving through volunteering. And I get a great deal of satisfaction from that.

Some might think I am living a schizophrenic existence. But I enjoy both content writing and writing fiction. And I believe that writing fiction has made me a better content writer.

If you’ve only known me from my publishing career, please visit my new author website at www.timkarney.com.

Or if you want to know more about my content writing for the public sector market, visit my website at www.GovContent.net

I hope that whether you’re working fulltime or retired, you’ll find the balance in your life that satisfies you.