How often do you hear others, or even yourself making the comment of “Thank God its Friday”? Only one day until the workweek is over – 2 days of play to come – yippee!!
This seems a funny concept to me. Why would one spend 5 days out of seven doing something that is not joyful and playful? I certainly don’t see work as ‘work’ and for me it’s has to be play. In our businesses we abide by the motto that ‘work is play with a purpose’.
This means that work MUST be play with a purpose, and the PURPOSE is key. Why we do what we do, and the passion we have for that controls everything. So if we are really involved in it, and totally passionate about what we are doing, then its not a struggle. In this state we find ourselves making the comment of “Thank God it’s Today”.
To end the day with more energy than you started with is a great measure of whether you’ve done a great job. You know that you’ve been investing your life in something worthwhile. It should never be ‘Oh my gosh, I cant wait for that last client to walk out of here at 5 o’clock tonight’ its more like ‘Oh no, there’s no one else to serve today?’
Many people aspire to the much popularized 4 hour “work” week. I can understand that 4 hours of drudgery is more than enough for one week. I suggest that we should shoot for the zero hours “work” week. Instead replace it with the 168 hour “play” week.
If you are firing your Quadrant 1 part and you heart is singing with purpose and you passionately launch yourself into every moment of your life, if you have something worthy of investing your life spirit into then go for it, BE it.
An important aspect of this also is the gift of your Quadrant 1 part that shows you the big picture. Make sure that you passionately schedule time where you do other stuff – for example, I always get away for a month or so at a time during the year doing other stuff be it skiing, sailing or just hanging out in a foreign country. I will spend a little bit of time each day maintaining our businesses, but essentially it’s a time of reconnecting and looking from the outside in, redesigning, and looking at what is possible from here.
Being passionate about what you do, and doing it 24/7 is, for me, a great producer of a fulfilling life but it doesn’t mean working yourself to the bone.
I think every three months every person should take time off and give yourself opportunities to travel because when you immerse yourself in different cultures. Even a weekend trip to a different state, town or village gives your brain a chance to rewire. You get to bring that richness back to your home culture and you see things differently.
Playing your life is so productive – it’s never a cost, it always pays dividends.
Play with this.
