Wed, Thurs, Friday... Day's 33, 34, and 35

I have noticed my outlook on the weekends has begun to change.  I used to always look at weekends as recovery days; the days where I worked less and recouped my energies for the next week ahead.  Now, I approach the weekends with this desire to milk every minute out of them that I did not have before.

Several years ago when I was just starting my career I worked for 24 Hour Fitness, one of the largest, if not THE largest, health club chain in the United States, maybe even the world by this point.  I worked there for two and half years as a personal trainer and as a manager of the fitness department.  I worked long days too.  In a typical week I would meet with over 50 clients, each appointment being one hour along.  In addition, I had floor hours, orientation hours, meetings, conference calls etc... as much as I loved training I was burnt out.  I didn't like working for someone else as I always felt like what my vision of making the world a better place and 24 Hour Fitness's were much different.

When I would get my one day off, I would not want to move.  I was so anal about having to get up do my laundry, go to the store, minimize movement and try to recover for the next draining week ahead. I would stress out if I was not in bed by a certain time so I could get at least 8 hours of sleep as I felt I needed to have that to be able to survive the next day's work. My girlfriend at the time wanted to travel and I never would because I was scared that if I ever took a day off I would fall behind.  My life was horribly out of balance.

Now, I still work a lot (hahaha), but my balance in life is different; not perfect by any means, but definitely better.  Hence the new outlook towards the weekends.  I realized that if I was to really hit 1000 I had to maximize the weekends.  And I also realized that if I really wanted to make the most of this year, well I work and average of five hours a day less on Saturday and Sunday than I do any other day of the week.  That is 10 hours a week more I have to see,experience, live life.  Keep doing the math and you are looking at 40+ hours a month or 520 hours a year.  Just those 10 hours a weekend, when measured over the year equal out to over THREE WEEKS of extra life that I can live - WOW.

It makes it hard to sleep in when I am excited to get up and live and experience. 

It is about 5am here in California on a Saturday as I finish writing this - I can't help but have a huge smile on my face for some of the activities I have planned for the Challenge this weekend.  How can I stay asleep any longer when I know I have so much to look forward to?!

Planning ahead helps to light the fires of excitement in life.  The more we have to look forward to the more passion we live with.  Looking ahead in life can help motivate and inspire in the present when things may seem stagnant or hopeless.  The list has been, and will no doubtingly continue to be, stressful at times.  It is a lot to manage.  However, every time I look over it stressed out, trying to figure what I am going to do when, I help but smile and get excited when looking ahead of all that is to come.

I have to run, I do not want to miss the boat to Anacapa Island - going there is on the list.

Enjoy the pics,

Carpe Diem