Veteran Trucker Offered Heartfelt Advice
“Don’t give your life to trucking, because trucking won’t give you anything in return.”
After asking me if I minded if he gave me some advice, these were the words of a veteran truck driver I recently had the pleasure of speaking with at a truck stop.
It saddens me to hear stories like this about the profession that I know firsthand has the potential to be so fulfilling. So I spoke to him for a while to get an understanding of why he thought this way.
As we spoke he talked about the family time he had missed out on during his career as a truck driver. And cautioned me about taking that extra load when it meant forgoing a planned family activity.
He told me about a friend of his that had made a lot of money trucking and had a lot of nice material things but who was now estranged from his family because he had not prioritized them.
But as we spoke and he mentioned some of the trucking jobs he had in his career, I noticed he seemed proud of the things he had done.
So I said to him, it seems like it’s not necessarily trucking that’s the problem here but striking the right balance between trucking and family.
He had gotten a little worked up telling his story and when I said this he excitedly agreed that I had indeed gotten to the heart of the problem: Balance.
First, Find Your Balance
Trucking at its most fulfilling means you are using the freedom trucking provides as a vehicle to do the things that are important to you. But first, you have to figure out what those things are. For me, I balance trucking with health and fitness and blogging. For you, it will be health and fitness and whatever it is you are passionate about. Health and fitness is non-negotiable. I believe that for trucking to qualify as the best job in the world, which I wholeheartedly think it is, one must first and foremost maintain one’s health. But that third piece of your own personal balance equation it’s wholly up to you. For many, that will mean spending time with friends and family.
So before you decide to become a truck driver or for the driver’s already out there long-hauling it. Please take some time to think about the things that are important for you personally, the things you value and hold dear, and how you can use trucking to help you do those things you are passionate about instead of preventing you from doing them.