While I play tennis with my retired neighbors in the middle of the day they often don’t understand. How I can hit for a couple hours, and then head home to pick up my work right where I left off. They waited until they were 70 for the kind of freedom I now enjoy. They sometimes think I am underemployed or not successful. How could I be? I don’t fit the model that has been and is preached for decades.

How am I able to take my daily after lunch walk and if I run into a friend can sit and chat for a couple hours.

How I gave up on trying to explain what I do for a living and how most people even my own family don’t understand because I don’t just have a job title at a corporation anymore. Did they understand what I did before? Probably not… But at least they felt comfortable and safe because I was in the standard box.

But as you pointed out, the occasionally feel guilty that I am somehow cheating the system. I feel like I should be taking on more than I am just to be busier. Crazy… I have a friend that keeps me in check when I am feeling the urge to take on additional projects just to fill my time. I give him a call and he reminds me that more work won’t make me happier and that being able to play chess, tennis, workout, cook, take walks, and read during the day and still get a reasonable amount of work done is something to hold onto.