Over the past two years, my wife and I have made a series of life decisions that have prevented us from settling in any one location. The traveling we've done has been great, but it's no substitute for feeling rooted within one's community. We're currently on our third city in as many years.

Since this semi-nomadic lifestyle began, investing has come to occupy more and more of my time -- in fact, it's been one of the few constants. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but without a physical community to call myself a part of, the life I've been living hasn't yielded what I've hoped for.

So after a decade away from the game, I decided this spring it was time to start coaching high school football, a sport I played through college. Two-a-days started two weeks ago and -- coupled with a wedding and a couple of family reunions -- I figured now was the perfect time to take a mini-sabbatical from all things investing.

Over that time, I've realized a couple lessons that other over-stimulated, investing-focused individuals like myself might benefit from hearing out loud.

Among them:

Invest? Why invest?I would like to believe that, for myself, the chief reason to invest is to allow my family to live the lives we desire without having financial anxiety impinge on our ability to appreciate our varied experiences. And for those who want to accomplish the same thing, I can only hope the Fool's advice helps in that regard.

Notice, though, that you need a "life" which has "varied experiences" to make investing worth it. Making money and investing alone isn't enough to qualify for either of these.

In fact, an Australian nurse who caters to those on their deathbeds made a list of the five greatest regrets she most commonly heard:

Notice that none of these deal with investing or even money. Clearly, if investing is to be a worthwhile pursuit, our lives need to be worthwhile as well.

In the end, I actually think Foolish colleague Jeff Fisher put it best when he said that finances are important, "only because you probably don't want your main focus during your time here to be money. You want your finances to be sensible, sustainable, provide for you and your family, and not worry you much (some worry is hard-wired in all of us). Period."

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What I Learned From an Investing Sabbatical