I think too often we get caught up in all the BS that surrounds us. I work a regular job I'm out the door usually around 7:00 and home around 6:00 in the evening.

Now granted alot of that time is travel time. But you get the picture. I'm not exactly home for all hours of the evening. Sometimes I am alot later and I don't see the kids till the morning. But.......

I have weekends off. I'm involved in the kids lives. We have a pretty good relationship considering they don't want to do their homework, and want to live on ice cream, torpedo pops and pop tarts, and are complete and utter pigs (typical boys i think.)

I hear people talking about how rough they have it. Working the daily grind, not getting to see the wife and kids. Not enough money to pay the bills (some of those bills are for toys of course). I have gotten to the point now that I want to just reach out and smack em back to reality.

If you don't like what you are doing....Quit...do something else. Yeah yeah I know, how irresponsible that is...How you gonna make ends meet? The economy is soooo terrible and you will never find another job right???? Wrong. You will most likely find another job, and probably quicker than you expected. The problem is that your next job will be total crap too. The reason..... It's not your job that is making you unhappy. It's your outlook. Change your perspective a little, it'll work wonders.

I did go get a new job, and it was a better paying job, and then after a few months I started having some issues with one guy I work with. Right away I started comparing this job to the last job. Poor pitiful me. Why is everybody picking on me? :( Then I realized that I was being an ungrateful whiney little snot.

My job is fine. I have to learn to deal with adversity better than that. The only person that can truly make me miserable is me. I let this jerk get under my skin and I was the one paying the price, not him. so I took a different perspective, and realized that his problems with me are just that HIS, not mine. I started focusing on the fact that I get to come home every night to a wife and 2 (sometimes 3) kids, that are genuinely happy to see me (usually). We don't have much extra money, but our bills get paid and we get to the movies and the ice cream shop pretty regular. My kids have all their fingers, toes, and mental facilities (for boys). I can still move around fairly well, considering I thought I was indestructible as a child, teen and young adult.

Sure we have had our problems. I've had sick kids, sick wife, sick me. Injured kids, injured me. Arguments, late bills, even having services turned off at one time or another. Oh well that's just life. I'm still here, so is the rest of my family and we are no worse off for all the crap I worried about for so long.

Take it from a 40 something father of 3 with not much in the bank to show for all his years of work. Life is good, and it gets better with each passing day. It's not about money. I know you hear it all the time, but money is not the answer. Being a part of this group of crazy people I call my family is what is truly important to me. Once I realized that, I was able to understand what gratitude really is.