"We hope you lose tomorrow, daddy". These were the words of the daughters of Paul Collingwood, the England cricket player. They said this to him just before the England vs. West Indies do or die encounter as they want their daddy to "come back home" as soon as possible. To them all that matters is to be with their father, even if his team loses the world cup! This explains how much they miss their daddy, who has been extremely busy with his cricket schedule which has forced him to stay away from his family now for several months.

England had been on tour for the test matches initially in Australia, now they are touring the subcontinent for the world cup and the IPL would follow this. It's a tough choice for Collingwood as he has been home only for ten days during the past few months.

It is not just these cricket players who are faced with such a situation. Working towards achieving career goals, fame, recognition, professional competence and of course earning money, a lot of us are actually running a never ending marathon in pursuit of buying happiness, where the benchmark of happiness is a variable. Some are struggling for the basic necessities of life, some to add more comfort to their life style, and others for paying off debts or for children's education. In this struggle, a lot is being put at stake without much realization.

In this race against time, a majority of us are unable to keep up with the work life balance. We tend to lose the focus of our lives and the reason for running this race becomes totally hazy. It is usually the home and the family for which one gets out to struggle and earn. But home and family usually are the most affected when there is imbalance.

This imbalance in life is not just created by the earning members of a family but the house wives also contribute to it in some ways. Some of them are busy the whole day in house hold chores, they hardly find time to sit and spend quality time with their spouse and children. Lack of planning and organizing may be a reason for this.

The drive to achieve our goals, be It work or home related, is actually blinding us to the extent that those things that should matter to us the most are initially obscure and eventually gone! We need to realize that time is slipping out of our hands. We have to decide how far we have to go in this race against time and how much can we actually afford to put at stake. A line has to be drawn, priorities must be set. We need to realize that the people associated with us are irreplaceable. We must definitely work towards a secure future for our future generation but we must also stop for a while and think how much farther we need to go for this. What is more important for us, winning the game of life or winning the hearts of our loved ones?