The 40 hour work week is taking its toll on my health.

I’m sure this sounds crazy to someone who works 70-80 hour weeks for Microsoft, but enough is enough. I’ve had tingling in my extremities, dizziness, back pain and tightness in my throat. I went to two different doctors, a naturopathic physician and my chiropractor and the consensus seems to all point to one thing: work-related stress. My job is not particularly demanding, but I am required to be there 40 hours per week (or more), even if there’s no projects to work on. It’s the constant sitting in front of a computer and the idle time that is just wearing on me in the corporate environment.

I went on a camping trip to Orcas Island this weekend to have a good time. Unfortunately, I brought my stress with me and wasn’t really present to the fact that I was on this wonderful island with an easy-going pace of life. Something has to change.

Eliminating work-related stress: The way I see it, the way to eliminate work-related stress is to eliminate the source of the stress: working for someone else. Easier said than done, getting away from working for someone else is something I have been focusing on how to accomplish for some time. Rent and bills have to be paid and just quitting my job is not something I can just do. That brings up my second point.

Opting out of the rat race: Most people in Seattle and other American cities run the rat race. I define the rat race as working long work hours for someone else to buy material goods and over-sized houses that are really not necessary. In fact, as Americans, we work longer hours, buy bigger houses and have more stress-related illnesses… and for what? I would like to “opt-out” of the rat race and the corporate work environment.

Living on “island time”: On my first night on Orcas Island, I went to a potluck dinner at a local home and on the coffee table was a book entitled On Island Time. It got me to thinking: I’m tired of working by the clock and I would love to live on “island time”. I’m tired of being required to go to a set office location each day. I would like to buy a 40-50 foot boat as a live-aboard and have the freedom to work where I want. There’s really no good reason why I can’t do work on my own schedule, from any location I choose, for my own clients. I think about it a lot… and it’s time to stop thinking.