How many full-time jobs can you have?

Try listing out all of the "jobs" that you have and put them into 2 different categories. 1. full-time and 2. part-time. Here is a sample of the lists that I made for myself.

Full-time

• event coordinator
• parent
• wife
• dog "mom"
• house keeper

Part-time

• graduate student
• soccer coach
• school volunteer
• scrapbooker
• runner

How is it possible to have more than one full-time gig? But we all do, don't we? How is there even enough time in the day for all of the part-time jobs that we have? Well, basically, in my world, there isn't. Unfortunately, the things that we must do (jobs) tend to take our first priority. That isn't always bad, but it doesn't always mean that we are doing what we want to do either. When I have to put my "paying" job first, that is when I start to feel the most guilty. I know that when I am working I am contributing to my family, and, for the most part, I like what I do, but the guilt is still there.

I want to be able to pick my kids up from school in the afternoons and take them to the pool in the summer. I want to plan weekend getaways with my husband or travel to see friends that have been neglected. These things seem to be lower in the list of priorities, but why? They are all very important to me, or at least I say that they are. Recently, I was asked to make a list of my values for a class that I am taking. It seemed like a relatively easy task. What do I value? Well, I certainly value hard work, don't I? And education - that is important to me too. I value family and friends. I value exercise. Yeah. I value all of those things. Step two in the task was to determine if my behaviors were supporting my values. Uh oh. Hmmm? Well, I work hard. I am working towards my master's degree. Hmmm? I sometimes have to put my family and friends second because my job is demanding. My behavior is definitely not convincing me that I really value excercise. Wow! What a wake up call!

After that assignment, I was determined to be really honest with myself and what I really do value and what I want my behaviors to support, and most importantly what actions do I need to take in order to make that happen. What full-time job is most important to me, and which ones should be in the part-time category?