When you’re lying on your deathbed, will you want one more unnecessary meeting with that one frustrating colleague?

Or will you want one more connected moment with your child?

Will you want to clear one more email from your inbox?

Or will you want to hear the birds on a beautiful spring day?

I ask myself these questions often—especially when I’m out on a run.

I see the cars sitting in rush hour traffic, and I’m grateful for the choice I made a decade ago to cut the commute out of my life.

I hear the birds singing and feel the crisp morning air, and I’m grateful that I created a flexible schedule—one that allows me to be outside when it’s nice, not just when it’s the weekend.

I pick my sons up from school and head to the park, and I’m grateful that I didn’t tie myself to a calendar full of unnecessary meetings.

Because in a career-first lifestyle, we waste time on meaningless tasks.

We spend much of our days with people who don’t matter in the end.

We push our health to its breaking point.

And then we get up the next day and do it all over again.

But in a life-first lifestyle?

We still do great, meaningful work.

But we choose how we spend our time.

We prioritize our health, our relationships, and our actual lives.

Most people never make the shift. They stay stuck in the perceived necessity of the grind—the endless to-do lists, the boss’s expectations, the pressure to keep up.

But the people we get to see inside our intentional lifestyle design framework Strategic Planning for Life who make the shift?

They don’t just gain more freedom.

They perform better.

Sometimes, they reach their goals faster.

Sometimes, they land promotions they never expected.

Sometimes, they walk away from jobs that were draining them—and find something far better.

But every single time, they feel better.

Because they finally put their careers where they belong: as a part of their life, not the whole thing.

And when work tries to creep back in and take over (because it will)?

They gently guide it back where it belongs.