A little over a year ago, I left a decade at a company I genuinely loved. Great team, great leadership, meaningful work. But I wanted more. More challenge, more growth, more opportunities to step into new areas and build skills I hadn’t yet had the chance to develop. So when the opportunity came to join a growing healthcare software company, I took it. New company, new industry, new region of the country. Trading Oklahoma seasons for desert heat, familiar faces for strangers, and close family for a really long drive home.
It wasn’t just a career move. It was a family move. My wife and two teenagers packed up their established lives to help me pursue the next chapter. We also left behind our oldest daughter, who had just gotten married and was starting a family of her own, and a church we had served and loved for over a decade. Roots we had spent years growing, planted firmly in people and community. That’s not lost on me. Not for a second.
I’ll be honest, overworking is not new to me. I’ve spent the better part of my career being the guy who stays late, digs in on weekends, and genuinely loves solving problems so much that the line between passion and overdoing it gets blurry fast. That’s who I was before the move, and spoiler, that’s who showed up at the new job too.
The Transition
The transition was hard in ways I didn’t fully anticipate. Healthcare software has a learning curve unlike anything I’d worked in before. Terminology, regulations, workflows, the way teams think and operate. It’s its own world. And trying to prove yourself in a place where no one knows your track record yet, while missing the people and moments that used to just be a short drive away, is its own weight. What helped carry me through was already knowing a few people at the new company who became my day-to-day anchors during that stretch. And honestly, AI helped too. Being able to use it as a learning accelerator, less like a search engine and more like a patient mentor, helped me bridge the gap between my technical background and a brand new industry faster than I could have on my own.
But here’s the thing about AI that I had to learn the hard way. Just because it makes you capable of doing more doesn’t mean you should do more. I found myself taking on more tasks, moving faster, juggling more than ever, and feeling productive right up until I wasn’t. Doing 10x more things sounds great until you realize half of them are good enough solutions you’ll have to come back and fix later. That’s not productivity. That’s a debt with interest. And the tool didn’t create that problem. I did.
One Year In
My one year anniversary hit on May 5th. Cinco de Mayo, which felt appropriate. And when I looked back, I was proud. Real impact, real growth, goals I set and goals I didn’t even know I’d end up pursuing.
But I also looked around at mountains and desert and cactus and realized I haven’t experienced a third of the adventures I said we’d have as a family here. The hikes we talked about, the places we’d explore, the memories we’d make with my wife and kids in a brand new part of the country. Not to mention the health goals I told myself this fresh start would finally be the push I needed. A year later and those are still sitting on the list.
That one stung.
The Lesson
The honest lesson of year one isn’t about the career move or the technology or even the new industry. It’s this. When it comes to work life balance, no one is coming to save you from your own habits. Not your manager, not your company, not a great AI tool. If you don’t intentionally build a rhythm that includes the people and moments that matter, you will burn bright and burn out.
If you’re wired like me, the workaholic pull is real. And it’s sneaky, because it doesn’t feel like a bad habit. It feels like drive. But unchecked, that drive quietly borrows from everything else in your life until one day you look up and realize what you’ve been spending. I’ve been here before. I recognize the pattern. And this time I want to get ahead of it.
Year Two
So year two has a different goal alongside the professional ones. Enjoy the journey. Not just survive it. Work hard, and there will absolutely be weeks that demand more than 40 hours because that’s just the reality of this field, but make sure the people and experiences on the other side of that screen are getting what they deserve too.
Was the risk worth it? Yeah. I think so. Am I still figuring it out? Every single day.
But I’d take the leap again, and I’d tell you to take yours.
If this resonated with you, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. And if you’re a fellow workaholic still figuring out the balance, just know you’re not alone.
#OneYearIn #TechLife #WorkLifeBalance #AI #HealthcareIT #Leadership #GrowthMindset
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