I'll show you what's important

Last Friday morning I had gotten out of bed feeling a bit weird. I had breakfast with my son, sent him and my wife off to kindergarten and work, and had a shower to get ready for work myself. I went out to fetch my bike from the bike shed, and felt really dizzy. I sat down and passed out. As I came around what must have been only a couple of seconds later, the first thing I thought of has later surprised me. My first thought was “I have to let work know I’m going to be a bit late”. So I made sure I had let my boss know I would be late before my wife got to know what had happened.
My job is important to me. I spent eight and a half years at university to be able to work within the field I wanted to. Things may not have turned out exactly how I imagined, but I still really like my job. I get to practice law every day, and I get to work among clever people that I can learn from and share my knowledge with. Contributing is important to me and I also think that feeling needed is important to me.
Having said that, I’ve always thought that my job should never be my reason to get up in the morning. I don’t live for my work, I work so that I can lead the life I want to. After not being able to work more than 50% since my injury, I have often felt like the most important task at hand when my day at work is over, is to get ready for the next. That doesn’t make me feel good or like I work to be able to lead the life I want to. It makes me feel like work has become the one thing I prioritise at the cost of the life I want to lead and also sometimes at the cost of my health.
I wish that my first thought, as I came around this Friday, had been “This is my body telling me to calm down. This is not the first time this happens, but I will do whatever I can to make it the last. This is the time to prioritise what’s important.”
What’s important? I’ll show you;