As my life gets busier and more hectic, I keep coming back to the thought that I need to choose my priorities carefully. In my last incarnation, in a version of me I’ve outgrown and left behind for good, my priorities were completely out of whack. I thought that my work was my life. That my job defined me. That I was the byline under the title of any article I wrote.  That working six and seven days a week was a measure of my worth, my contribution, my value.

I was wrong.

These days, I see life with a new perspective. I am still incredibly driven. I still work too much, too many hours, think about jobs and assignments and clients way more than I should. As do most business owners, I’m sure.

But when I look at my husband, these days I know where my priorities lie. I say to him that I’ve got to finish this project and then I’m all yours. And you know what I do? I finish the project, turn out the office light, and spend time with him.

Of course, this is easier said than done. There are always the pressures of deadlines and expectations. But what I’ve come to understand is that there will always be deadlines and expectations. No matter how many projects I finish, there will always be one more. I’ve learned to do the very best I can on the project due now, and then move on. There will always be another project, another deadline, another job.

What will not come again will be this moment. Breathe in. Breathe out. What will  not come again will be this one moment in time to look into the eyes of the man I love and smile at him.

No deadline, no byline, no project nor award will ever give me the feeling I get when I am fully present with the people I love.

Work pays for life. Work gives us purpose in our day. Work allows us to share with others our gifts in exchange for currency. The currency pays the bills, keeps the lights on and feeds our families.

But the priority, the thing that means the most, is the time I take to connect with those I’ve chosen to share my life with: my husband, my family, my friends. This must be the priority. At the top of my To Do list must be this: Live my life.

If or when I fail to remember that, I give you my permission to remind me.

Stacie Zinn Roberts

Stacie Zinn Roberts is a nationally recognized, award-winning writer and marketing expert with more than 25 years of experience. She has won more than 40 national awards for her work including the United Nations Environmental Program for retail environmental marketing, as well as from organizations such at the Public Relations Society of America and the Turf & Ornamental Communicators Association. She’s written for industry publications such as Golf Course Management, Sports Turf, Golfdom and PR Daily. She spent eight years as the president and director of marketing for Environmental Turf, where she developed the branding for SeaDwarf Seashore Paspalum, the grass that eventually became the greens grass for the Rio Olympic Golf Course. Stacie served for six years on the Board of Directors of the Florida Turfgrass Association as Chair of the Research & Scholarship Committee where she worked closely with the scientists from the University of Florida’s turfgrass breeding program. Stacie founded What’s Your Avocado? Marketing & Public Relations in 2012.