Ah, my daily commute. Simply put, it was a major checkmark in the “cons” column of my “pros and cons” list I created while deciding if I should accept the job offer for my current position with Montway.
The fact that I was looking at a 70+ mile round trip drive each and every workday was something I was concerned about. It would be a daily commuting distance that I would share with only 8% of my fellow commuters, not to mention it would be expensive at the gas pump and overly expose me to one of my major pet peeves … traffic.
Despite the long commute, Montway was a place I wanted to be a part of. It offered me a chance to be an important part of a rapidly growing company that was not only established as a leader in innovation and technology within its space, but also respected and highly rated by its customers. In other words, it would be worth dealing with the Chicagoland rush hour traffic, so I accepted and prepared myself to deal with spending a lot more time in my car.
The thing I failed to realize however is just how much I would actually appreciate and benefit from the quiet alone time my commune would provide to me.
I’m a busy guy, I’m married and father to three kids under ten years old. What does that mean for all you single folk out there, well it means that the concept of a quiet moment is no longer a reality but a whisper of the past.
By the time I make it through my daily morning home routine, survive the emails, meetings, phone calls and daily “it has to be done now or the world will come to an end” tasks of my normal work day and then finally get the kids to sleep and I put in my mandatory ESPN SportsCenter time, I’m ready to go to bed, wake up and do it all over again.
My commute offers me a chance to be alone with my thoughts and concentrate on what I have going on, both personally and professionally. The results have been outstanding.
Some of the best concepts and ideas that I have brought to Montway have origins in my drive to or from work. For example, the initial rough concept for our Miles Ahead technology came to me on my way back from work one night while. You see, my commute is my time to decompress, connect, or reflect. It’s made me a more creative professional and successful at my job because I now have provided myself with a designated time and place to freely think undisturbed for 40 to 50 minutes at a time depending on traffic.
Sure, at times I wish I could just teleport home or get annoyed when the guy at the gas station says hello to me by first name, but overall I must admit, that check mark should have been moved over to the “pros” column.
