If you have a Monday through Friday job, then you already know how restricted your time is during the week. Your mornings are spent getting out the door so you can be at work at your desk by 8 am. Your evenings are spent as a caretaker to your family. Your nights are spent grabbing a couple of minutes of personal time while you get off your feet because you have spent your day giving of yourself to others. But when do you find time to work on that BAHG (Big Arse Hair Goal) that lives as a spark in your belly?
168 hours a week is all you get.
If you are like most people, then you cherish your weekends – as you should. You look forward to the alarm clock NOT going off. The comfort and warmth of the bed is hard to leave. Anybody who says they don’t love comfortable warm bed is out of their mind. One of the best feelings is that time right after you wake up before you’ve thrown off the covers. But in case you missed it the first time I said it …
168 hours a week is all you get.
Being a high achiever is a choice. You need to choose every day between the things that will keep you average, and the things that will make you stand out in the crowd. You choose to get up and go to your job every morning because that is what pays the bills and puts food on table. You choose who your friends are because of mutual attraction and similar belief systems. And on the weekends, you choose to enjoy the bed because it is damn comfortable. But sometimes on Sunday nights you get frustrated with yourself because you are starting another week and there is nothing that you have done that will make it different than last week. You failed to use your time in the best possible way and then you realize once again than …
168 hours a week is all you get.
Here is my tip for you: Stop sleeping in on the weekends.
Get up at the same time seven days week. That is what I do. My alarm is set for five am seven days a week. The weekends are the best time to get up early. I have my schedule set up, so I have no client obligations most weekends. That means that the extra time between five am and when the first family member gets up is all for me. I can exercise. I can write blog posts like this. I can read. I can get chores done. But the best thing I can do is work on that list of things that will help me create my dream day. The quiet time can be used to plan out the personal relationships I want to grow and the vision that my business needs to be bigger. Because after all …
168 hours a week is all you get.
Here are the adjustments you need to make to your schedule to start doing this:
- Start going to bed at the same time every night. Ideally, you’d want to hit pillow between 10 and 11pm to get the ideal number of hours a night. You’ll have to experiment in this area. You could also get bold and trying something like tri-phasic sleep. This will also have to be adjusted in you work mid shift or swing shift.
- Pick an alarm time that is at least an hour earlier than anybody else in the house. But don’t get ridiculous. If your spouse already gets up early, then start joining them.
- Drink a large glass of water within five minutes of getting out of bed. This will wake up your body and get your brain going.
- Find a peaceful place in the house where you can think deeply about your life. Take a journal, something to drink, and nothing else. Spend time writing about your successes and failures that occurred during the past. Then spend time planning out the next seven days and what you are doing to do to be sure they are not like the previous seven days.
If you want to start getting ahead in life, then stop looking at the weekends as days off. You should be getting up earlier and working harder on those days. A high achiever must put in overtime to create their dream life. People on their deathbed never wish they slept more.
I’d love to hear your comments below.
Do you take off on the weekends or do you use the free time to get closer to your dream day?
