Do I have issues?

[Marlow]

Poker is no substitute for living. It's important to be driven at poker. You may very well have more potential than the best in the game... who knows. You want to quit your job because it's boring? Go for it. You can always go back to your field. Nothing wrong with that.

But what you described sounds like a problem if you aren't enjoying life, or you are losing your connections with people who matter to you. Don't use your desire to win and improve as a standin for dealing with your marital issues or work issues or whatever. To me, this sounds just like addictive behavior. Addicts use their drug to get away from the things that they don't want to deal with.

And with that said, i should get back to work...

Marlow

[beachbum]

Indy, I'll share a bit of what I experienced with you.

I was an engineer working in Peoria, IL. I didn't hate my job, but it also didn't give me a reason to leap out of bed in the morning. I had a lot of great friends, an active social life, hit the gym, played lots of sports, etc. I made a lot of money compared with the cost of living there. But I quit to pursue a passion of daytrading, and because I was never really satisfied living in that small of a town.

Then, I moved to Cali where I loved my job...at first. The problem was that my social life was nonexistant, the stress became huge after a few months, I rarely worked out or played sports. My life became completely unbalanced. I thought "well before my job kinda sucked, but the rest of my life was pretty cool. Now my job is great, but the rest of my life sucks." After a short while I started to hate my job and my life. I had trouble sleeping for the first time ever. I became a hypochondriac. Things were pretty miserable.

My point is that picture your life like a wagon wheel. Each spoke is an important part of your life. Now if a spoke or two is missing or rotting, the wheel can still roll. It will roll kinda funny and lopsided, but still roll. However, if enough spokes starting breaking and collapsing, the wheel itself becomes broken and just plain doesn't work anymore. This is despite if one of the spokes is made out of titanium and is incredibly strong.

[Dave H.]

...and I hope your strongest spoke will be your relationship with your wife.

Great metaphor, beach!