Since the beginning of the year, my body hit a brick wall. I found that I could not keep pushing myself like I did most of 2009. The level of stress I was carrying was starting to show and wear on my body and started to wear on my mind.

When you leave work, ideally you leave work at the office and come home. But between the on-call schedule and how busy I was last year, the divide between home and work started blurring. And instead of really enjoying my time at home, especially with the boys, I started regarding them as obstacles to getting more work done.

But being stuck at home with record snowfalls and getting sick over the last few months helped me realize just how much I had been overstressing and constantly focused on work instead of really enjoying my home life with my wife and kids.

Richmond's Record Snowfall - February 2010

I also recently got a physical and it was a bit of a wake up call of how much I’ve neglected my body and really pushed it to its limits with my reliance on junk food, sugar and caffeine. I am fortunate that my body isn’t in worse condition, but having high cholesterol is not good, especially with my family’s history of heart disease.

After taking soda out of my diet, I found that I could not force myself to stay awake any longer and that after having a taste of regular sleep, trying to deprive myself of sleep to work more has become incredibly difficult and has cut into my “working hours” for my personal projects.

WHAT? NO SODA???

But that doesn’t mean I’m stopping. I just have to be smarter about my time – getting enough sleep, exercise, family time, work and still have enough time to create games.

In the last few months…

• I was able to finish my site for building wells and fighting HIV in Uganda.
• I am finishing up a freelancing job within the next week.
• I am working on my next game with an artist friend of mine.
• And, I am incorporating my game company and trademarking this game idea of ours in the next few months.

I have to admit, I was very much resentful at hitting this hard limit of my body and my time. I whined, complained and even yelled in anger about how much I wasn’t getting done. But I’ve come to realize that I need to take care of myself for my family and to divide out my time properly – for work to stay at work and that the best hours of my day are with my wife and sons.

My family is my real work. Everything else is just a job.