This morning I saw a tweet from Chris Brogan asking “What numbers guide your career right now? What types of measures are you living by?” I shot back something kind of off the cuff like “mortgage, bank account balance, number of days of PTO available, whether this month is 3 or 2 paychecks” which I suspected was not what anyone wanted to hear. I think we’re supposed to be more strategic than that, to be “in control” of our careers, and presumably striving to better ourselves and measure it in some way.
But at the end of the day, my numbers may not be what I measure success by, but they are what I watch to stay on track. I made a choice to start a family, live in a relatively affluent Boston suburb, and survive on one income while my wife stays at home to raise 3 kids.
The mortgage is the result of selling a larger, more expensive house in Needham to buy what I think is a better house in a better town, for less money, a slightly longer commute and a lower mortgage. But it’s an adjustable rate interest only mortgage that we pay extra on each month. My goal is to drive that debt down below 300K in the next couple years.
The bank account and timing of paychecks is my effective cash management practice of continuing to live paycheck to paycheck while setting aside whatever I can to saving or to pay down debt so that I never feel I have money to burn.
And the days of PTO? I feel like I never take a vacation, but somehow the days are used up. I was out for 3 days this week and it seems like I was gone for a week or more.
I felt kind of pedestrian for posting that comment, but I’ve also come to realize that for most people, career is about paying the bills. I’d love to say the numbers guiding my career were the number of visitors to this blog, how many posts per week I could average, and some kind of “influence metric” that showed people cared about what I wrote. But for now, I’m on a long drive where it’s less about miles covered and more about keeping the tank full and avoiding tickets.
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