I hope you are all having a splendidly awesome Saturday (or Friday if you're still there - or Sunday if you're already there)
This last contest that Galen hosted (my $1000 weekend) got me thinking about the worth of a weekend - not just in terms of financial worth, but in other ways as well.
Yesterday I worked on various things that I consider "work" until very late at night (probably midnight) and most nights even later than that. I am driven by a need to make things happen and to change a set of circumstances that I'm currently in - that requires a goal, strategy or plan on how to achieve it, a lot of action on my part and forward momentum. I know that it's only through these actions that I'm going to achieve the goals and get the results that I want.
I run my own business (well I've actually got 3 different ones running simultaneously) which means that unfortunately I don't currently knock off at 5pm and leave work there until Monday morning, there is always a to-do list for work related things for at least one of my businesses. So does that mean that I work every weekend? No, it doesn't and sometimes I will substitute a week day as a weekend and take my daughter out somewhere nice. I do have that flexibility sometimes which is nice.
This morning while washing the dishes (I do all my thinking while washing the dishes) I found myself pondering in true stevenism style "do I miss having formal weekends?" The answer was an immediate and resounding YES. The next question I asked was "why?"
I feel that even though I have more time flexibility working for myself - the lack of set parameters means that if I'm not physically doing something related to work, then I'm almost certainly thinking about it or planning around it. I don't have set 9am - 5pm business hours and because of the nature of my business, I often get text messages after hours asking me questions about orders that have come in or something related to client's websites. Being willing to go that extra little bit for clients is a value added service of mine that I feel sets me apart from most other companies that offer similar services and I pride myself on my work ethic, but ....I do miss the security of knowing that the whole weekend is mine to do with what I will.
Through life each of us have to ask ourselves what are we willing to sacrifice for our goals? Until today I was very happy to sacrifice my weekends, but after not having an official weekend for more than five years, I feel like I ought to make the effort to take them back once in a while and make sure that work isn't in the top three priorities on those days.
What do you think?
If you work standard week days and have your weekends off, what are they worth to you? If you lost your weekends, how much would you miss them?
If you don't work standard week days and you work over weekends, would you like to regain that time back for yourself and how do you substitute for it?
Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Have a beautiful Saturday
-Bob Proctor
