No More Days Off

“Everybody is working for the weekend”- Loverboy

If you only work for the weekend or for vacation, you are not living.

Stop living a life that you need an escape from.

What if you lived a life where you did not need another day off?

In 2012, according to the World Bank the average human life for an American was 78 or 28,489 days. When you live for the weekend, you only live 8,138 days, the other 20,351 days you are not alive. Let that sink in for a minute, for over two-thirds of your life you have made the choice to not truly live

You don’t need to love your job or boss. These are lies that we have been told, do they help, of course. Somewhere along the line, we were told we should have this perfect life. We will love our job, we will have all these friends, have a lot of money and our lives will be perfect. Stop buying in. You need to love your life.

Here are some tips on how to live an amazing life for the rest of your life.

Stop seeing work as a bad thing. It is an opportunity to learn, grow and become better. It is a channel to get you where you want to go.

Do at least one thing that is significant to you each day. Some days at work, no matter what job you have will seem pointless and that you never had chance to do anything significant. You have time before and after your work day to make an impact. Take a look at Bo Johnson, a boy who did not have a job, never held an official leadership position but he changed and continues to change the lives with his story. He did not wait until a job was there for him; he went out and did it.

Forgiveness: This is one that I have the most trouble with, not because I do not believe in it but because it is hard for me to do. When we hold on to hate, hold on to the ways we were mistreated, do not forgive those that have wronged us and more importantly the times that we have let ourselves down, we are holding back out lives. Forgiveness cuts the weights so we can come up for air.

Stop trying to get even and focus on getting better. When we try to get even with someone that wronged us, we do not become better, we just become even. We become on the same level that pissed us off. Why do we want to become even? What is that going to prove to the person that wronged us? If you are just living to prove that person wrong, you are living for them, you are putting all your effort on them and you are far too valuable to do that. You were made for so much more.

Stop complaining and be grateful: Life is not fair and sometimes it sucks. Not everything will go as you planned, it happens to everyone, it is not hate it is not God punishing you, it is life.  There are so many stories that I could tell you about individuals who had the cards stacked against them but they had a grateful attitude and they thrived. While we are at it, if you have done this in the past, stop letting it hold you down. It is in the past and there is nothing you can do about it. Focus on your future.

Help others: The best way to experience this one is to go out and do it but here is a caveat, if you only help people for the reward or karma, do not expect to feel anything. Give freely.

Remember how awesome you are. In an age where celebrity gossip, selfies and the number Twitter followers are the ways that we measure our life, it is easy to forget how great you are. You are full of so much potential, more than you can even fathom. We do not need to tell everyone how great we are, we need to believe it ourselves. Stop trying to impress people and start doing things that fulfill your life. We truly live when we do not need anyone’s praise to prove how great we are. It is a scary concept but until we get there, we are living for other people and we are not living. Go out there and kick some ass.