Save Your Soul For Your Own Species

Fall in love with your work, but don’t make it your
soulmate.

I made that mistake for a long time. Like many
entrepreneurs, I found something I loved and it loved me right back. Of course I gave it everything.

Isn’t that how soulmates work?

It certainly seemed romantic and noble and meaningful at the
time. The prospect of treating my business as my first mate, first priority and
first responder appealed to my sense of duty. It stoked my work fire. It made
me feel heroic.

But as a result, I started giving more and more pieces of myself
to the work, and not to my relationships.

Let me show you my
secret compartments, I would whisper in the ear of my enterprise. My
soulmate. My valentine. My twin flame.

Meanwhile, the people I cared about most were left with
crumbs. Emotional leftovers. The remains of the day that trickled down my
collar.

And I couldn’t be the friend or family member they needed.

That’s the danger of putting your all into something. It
becomes a part of you. Sometimes too much a part of you. Sometimes the sole
place of your identification.

And that makes it very difficult to make the rest of your
life happy.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with giving your heart
to your work.

But save your soul for your own species.