My family lives a comfortable but not especially extravagant life, and while there are certainly some material things we'd yet like to acquire, we're well set with the basics and more. There may be various things that need fixing in our house, but we've achieved the big goal of having a house at all. My wife and I will surely seek further professional development and fulfillment, but we've established our careers.

    With some of the big material categories essentially taken care of, there's a further challenge: how we approach setting non-material goals and priorities, and make time in the juggle to make them happen.

    It's not as simple a task as it might first appear. As we make our way through the paces of our work and home lives, it's easy to downplay or put off things that have nothing to do with keeping on schedule or paying the bills. For me, one goal that's been on the back burner for years is returning to writing short fiction. I was never going to make a living at it or win any awards, but until shortly after college it was a pursuit I greatly enjoyed. I would have to take active steps to carve out time for it now─and so far, I haven't even really taken the time to think about how to do it, let alone actually done it.

    There's an endless array of possible goals─doing more hands-on charity work, spending more truly connected time with one's spouse or one's kids, doing amateur study in a fascinating if impractical field.

    我的家庭生活很舒适，但并不算特别奢侈。虽然还有些物质上的东西是我们想得到的，但我们已经拥有生活中所有的必需品，甚至还有些不那么必须的。或许我们的房子里有这样那样的东西需要修补，但毕竟我们已经实现了拥有一所房子的大目标。妻子和我当然还会在职业上追求更大的发展和满足感，但我们的事业已经奠定了一定基础。

    虽然一些大的物质目标已经达到，但还有更进一步的挑战，那就是：我们该如何制订非物质的目标和选择轻重缓急，并在忙碌的工作和日常生活之余挤出时间来实现这些目标。

    这听上去可能简单，但实际上并非如此。在一步步完成工作和家庭生活各个环节的同时，我们很容易忽视甚至推延那些和日常日程或费用不相干的事。比如，多年来我排在非紧要位置的一个计划是重新开始写作短篇小说。我从没打算过以此谋生或得个什么奖，但直到大学毕业后的一段时间里我都乐于此道。现在我必须采取积极步骤挤出时间来做这件事，我从未真正花时间来考虑怎么着手，更别说实际采取行动了。

    能想到的希望实现的目标可以列出数不清的一长串，比如更多地直接参与慈善活动、花更多时间真正跟配偶或孩子在一起、业余时间对某个有趣但可能不太实际的领域进行研究……等等等等。