This episode features former blog guest Sam Franklin, a father of two who works part-time as Head of Innovation Consulting in a global tech corporation. I published a write-up of my interview with Sam on International Men’s Day 2020, which felt fitting given that his take on work-life balance centred on empowering men to take ownership of how they choose to spend their time, both in and outside work. A vital part of that, he argued, was championing the role that men play in creating true equality with their female counterparts – particularly those with caring responsibilities. At the time of interviewing Sam, he had only recently become a father. Once he started navigating his company’s paternity leave policy, he realised that he was the first male employee in his organisation to challenge some of the rules and assumptions around working fathers taking an active childcare role at home. His paternity leave arrangement set a precedent in his corporate employer and he later went on to be offered a promotion, which he accepted only on the condition that it be a part-time role – allowing him to commit to spending one full day a week looking after his daughter. For Sam, this arrangement afforded him a true sense of balance. Now here we are, three years later, and I’m delighted to be hosting Sam on the podcast. His situation has drastically changed since 2020, both in his work and home life. And we get to that during this podcast episode. We also discover what a superpower it is not being a perfectionist, and how Sam's satisfaction with things being "good enough" has enabled him to pack in a remarkably busy career, volunteering commitments and home life. Sam's perspective of balancing work with everything else in life has been brought sharply into focus most recently due to his cancer diagnosis. His experience affords him a perspective that is a sobering reminder of how precious our time is, and how choosing how you spend it really matters. It is a great privilege to share this podcast episode as the final one of 2023, and indeed the final episode of Season 2 of my podcast. With new year’s resolutions traditionally on the mind at this time of year, I hope my dear listeners will find Sam’s life-affirming story a thought provoking and uplifting accompaniment to 2023 drawing to a close, and welcoming in 2024. To read more about this podcast episode and see the photo - as promised in the interview - of Sam sporting his batman onesie (and more), follow this link: https://a-fine-balance.com/2023/12/18/a-fine-balance-the-podcast-season-2-episode-8-out-now/ You can read the blog post I wrote about Sam's work-life balance story back in 2020 here: https://a-fine-balance.com/2020/11/19/sams-story-fighting-the-good-fight-part-time-working-fatherhood-paternal-working-rights-and-living-with-cancer/