Krista, I suspect your parents know you can't drop it all and go play. It's okay to stop feeling guilty about that. 🙂

Lisa, thank you for the kind words, hon! Those boundaries were hard won, but I protect them fiercely. The priorities during my work day are set in stone – no outside, unrelated forces will interfere without a tussle. Like you said, I keep my word. I don't care if that means marital rifts or kids hassling me – I have deadlines and dang it, I meet them.

Sometimes I don't mind because I'm on the board and like to ask questions of contractors myself.

But it grinds me when one of my co-owners e-mails me and says, "X contractor is available Monday. Is there a time you can meet him?"

I often say no, that I'm crazy crunched with interviews and writing. And I don't feel a bit guilty about it!

You've got great boundaries. What I notice about how you work (at least for the work you've done for me) is that you schedule specific time to work on specific projects. You then tell clients when you're going to work on the project and when you expect it to be complete.

And then you kept your word. That's more than good. It's great, fantastic, amazing. Unusual.

I think this is a big reason why people are out of balance…they don't want to be held responsible for what they commit to, so they don't commit. This has a huge impact not only on our sense of wellbeing and completion, but on our wallets!

Ahh, the crazy double binds.

Excellent, beautiful work my friend!