Monday rant: How much quality time do you spend with your dog?

Life is all about choices. Right now, you can choose to continue reading this article or you can tune out and see what the rest of the blog post has to offer. (though you’ll really want to stick around, trust me).

If you are still reading this, then the incentive worked. We all have internal incentives which keep us going, whether they are voluntary incentives or those which are necessary to keep our lives performing to their optimal capacity. Someone in your household pays the bills, and perhaps that person is you. Going to work, writing those checks, ensuring your lights stay on and water runs from your tap—those are necessary incentives. In other words, get out of bed, get to work, and pay those bills. Are you happy about the price of gas per gallon these days? Of course not, but you stand at the pump and fill your tank up. Without that fuel, you don’t get to point B from point A. You need gas: A necessary incentive.

Dogs aren’t necessary in the lives of some, but for me a dog by my side is as much of a staple as air, water, and well, hearing my heart beat in general. So while having a telecommute career has its own set of challenges but indeed having a dog by my side, a family member I love more than life itself, is the best fringe benefit EVER.

Do you telecommute? Maybe you don’t but spend a lot of time behind the computer when you are home. Do you blog about pets, dogs perhaps? How often are you actually engaging with the dog to gain inspiration and general joy? I asked myself the same question and decided to ensure I was living  “dog life” to the fullest.

Life is also full of voluntary incentives: those things we choose to do which give us a sense of fulfillment far greater than paying the bills and filling the tank. We educate ourselves, change careers, join a fitness club, play with the dog, take a family vacation, read a book, get a new haircut, shop for some new clothes. Whatever your personal incentives, these are the things you look forward to, the “stuff” of which life is made.  For me, well, for many, those personal incentives involve sheer happiness received from our relationships with our dogs.

No matter how much we whine, complain, daydream, or postpone, the bottom line is our necessary incentives aren’t going away. So why should your personal incentives be any different? Why not walk the dog, spend time rolling a ball to him, taking the time to laugh with Rover for no reason at all?

Embrace personal incentives. Make plans. Spend time with your dogs. Get out at lunchtime and take a walk, sit in the sun, turn on the Ipod.  Sit in a car at the park with the dog if the weather is cold. The necessary aspects of your life aren’t going anywhere, so why push the fun things you enjoy out the window? It’s all about balance, not just this time of year, but throughout our lives. I won’t be advising you to take anything away from your life. You won’t be giving anything up. The tank still needs to be filled and the bills still need to be paid. How about adding something to your already busy agenda? Three letters: d-o-g.

For me, I am indulging in the things that make me happy to my core, at the base of my life. You only get one, after all (a life, that is).  At the end of the day, and with much practice, you’ll feel better for that time spent with the dog. Quality one on one or perhaps with other family members. You’ll also have a personal incentive to get you through the necessary ones.

Plan a vacation, do something as a pack, a dog mom or dad. Live within driving distance of a big city? Take a weekend for you and Fido.  If you plan now, budget the time and money to make the trek, again you’ll have a personal incentive to work towards as that sun glistens in the sky and the temperature rises. And if your finances simply won’t allow such an expenditure, picnics in the park, camping, joining a dog play group, getting a group of friends together for a rotating in-home dog night are all feasible choices for a shoestring budget. Do with what you have, but above all do.

PS: Check Fidose of Reality out on Pinterest, where I am collecting the fun things and cool choices of a dog’s life.