Even the top executives of Google don't shy away from quitting their jobs for the love of travel. Last year, Google's ex-CFO Patrick Pichette left the tech giant to go globetrotting with his family. At the time of his leaving announcement, Pichette wrote the most unconventional notice that warmed millions of hearts worldwide. The first half of his memo read: After nearly 7 years as CFO, I will be retiring from Google to spend more time with my family. Yeah, I know you've heard that line before. We give a lot to our jobs. I certainly did. And while I am not looking for sympathy, I want to share my thought process because so many people struggle to strike the right balance between work and personal life. This story starts last fall. A very early morning last September, after a whole night of climbing, looking at the sunrise on top of Africa - Mt Kilimanjaro. Tamar (my wife) and I were not only enjoying the summit, but on such a clear day, we could see in the distance, the vast plain of the Serengeti at our feet, and with it the calling of all the potential adventures Africa has to offer. (see exhibit #1 - Tamar and I on Kili). And Tamar out of the blue said "Hey, why don't we just keep on going". Let's explore Africa, and then turn east to make our way to India, it's just next door, and we're here already. Then, we keep going; the Himalayas, Everest, go to Bali, the Great Barrier Reef... Antarctica, let's go see Antarctica!?" Little did she know, she was tempting fate.

Now he's back in Canada - his native land - to spend the holidays. At the end of it, Pichette will pack his bags once again to fly off to Buenos Aires, Patagonia and Antarctica.

Just reading about his travels is giving us jet lag.

Google is still on his mind.

Pichette was still travelling when Google went through its biggest restructuring last year. And while his replacement, Ruth Porat, joined the company, Pichette was proud to see things fall in place that he himself had worked on while he was still CFO.

When Pichette left Google, he left behind the public appreciation that came with it. But he's not complaining. In fact, he is still in touch with the top three execs at Google - Larry, Sergey and Eric.

And he's all praises for his successor: "Ruth is doing a good job."

Pichette, in fact, hasn't completely severed his ties from the corporate world. An advocate of work/life balance, Pichette is still continuing his 'work' stint at many non-profit and for-profit businesses.

Think it's time to take a cue from Pichette and rework our work/life goals, yeah?