My dad's death gave me a new perspective. I value experiences over money now.

When the author's dad died, she reevaluated her approach to work.

Courtesy of Tayla Blaire I used to push myself at work, outearning myself year after year.

When my dad died, and I heard how people talked about him, I reevaluated my approach.

Now, I still make enough to cover what I need, but I'm living a fuller life.

I'm a reformed workaholic.

I'd love to say I slowly came to realize that my value isn't monetary or based on how high I can climb a ladder , but that epiphany wasn't achieved in a growth-centric way.

Instead, it was a surprising side effect of losing my dad suddenly in September 2024.

He was there, and just like that, he was gone.

And my willingness to burn myself out died that day, too.

In the flurry of administrative chaos and world-wrecking grief that follows sudden death, it took a while for me to notice the change.

It was normal to work less while grieving .

Except it's now almost two years later — and yes, I'm still very much grieving — but I am back in the flow of working.

And it looks completely different.

I had been working hard for years When I was balancing full-time teaching with a writing side hustle , I regularly pulled ridiculous hours, working from 7 am until late at night.