I’ll admit that I get bored easily.

I like to say I’m “goal oriented”, but the reality is probably that I have a really short attention span and constantly have to have some new shiny in the not-so-distant future to keep me interested. The negative side effects of this itty bitty attention span are numerous, but there is also a really cool upside: I don’t stagnate.

Because I am constantly working towards new goals, I am always learning new skills or achieving new levels of mastery of old ones. It’s good for my brain and (usually) good for my bottom line.

Do you ever find yourself getting bored? Have you been doing the same job for years? When was the last time you learned a new skill that made you more marketable? If your answers make you realize that it’s been a while, it may be time to step outside your comfort zone again.  Try these tricks for pushing yourself to the next level.

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I said once that business travel sounds a lot more glamorous than it is in real life.  I lamented the early morning flights and the time away from family.  Business travel, I said, is often time spent in a hotel room rather than time spent traveling.

Tomorrow afternoon I’m getting on an airplane for a business trip. To the beach.  I received my itinerary by email and discovered that I’ll be enjoying a private tour of a nearby zoo and zip line facility.  My beach-front condo is going to be stocked with food and drink so I can enjoy breakfast in my room before heading out to spend time at a sand castle competition.

This part of my job is, to be frank, awesome.

We talk a lot about finding ways to juggle the things we have to do, spending less time doing the things we don’t want to do, and coping with the things we wish we never had to do again.

But ideally, we all have something we love about our jobs.  After all, there are lots of things we could do for the money.  Don’t we choose our work based on more than money - based on delightful perks like being sent to a beautiful beach for a weekend?

What keeps you coming back?  What makes the conference calls and the late nights and the daily juggle worth it?

What do you love about your job?

What’s the first thing you do when you get to the office?

For many of us - I daresay even most of us - the answer is “check email”.  Unless, of course, you have a smartphone and you don’t need to check your email right away when you get to the office because you’ve already checked it three times before even showing up to work.

I have checked my email on my iPhone before shutting off my alarm.

I regularly check it before having coffee, eating breakfast, hugging my kids, or kissing my husband.  If our actions are indicative of our priorities, it’s clear to me that this is not good. Sentimental logic aside, checking email may be the most unproductive way to start your day.

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I watched a beautiful video yesterday that asked moms what advice they would give themselves if they could go back in time to right before their first child was born.  The video was a gorgeous montage of varied answers that ranged from “sleep now” to “forgive yourself”.  My personal favorite was a sign that read “you are the expert”.

It got me thinking about other times in my life when I could have used some advice from women who had gone before me: my first day at a new school, the last day I went to college, our first argument after my wedding, that time I thought I could pull off the pixie haircut .  All of these moments could have been made just a little easier with some words of encouragement and wisdom.

Another milestone in my life as a woman, specifically as a working mother, when I could have used a little hand holding was when I went back to work after having my babies.  Ouch.  The heartbreak of dropping them off, the giddiness at having adult conversations during the day, the guilt at enjoying adult conversations and being overly tired at night; I was not prepared for either return to the workforce.

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Who among us would not love to work less and play more?  Wouldn’t it be fantastic if we could replace pointless meetings with our favorite hobbies?  What would you do to create a Utopian world with no unnecessary client calls or annoying “reply all” emails?  Would you lie?  Stretch the truth?

I’m currently listening to the audiobook version of The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss.  I’m intrigued by the idea of being able to earn an income in less time, especially since I’ll be needing to earn an income while my family travels around the United States for a year.  After all, it’d be great if I actually got to see some of the places we’ll be visiting.  Mr. Ferriss promises that it’s possible to be productive and profitable in one tenth of the time most Americans allot for work.

He also suggests that you can save yourself a lot of time if you tell a few half truths here and there.

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