Limitless Monday: Wishing Your Days Away Will Cause Harm In Short, Long Run

Limitless Monday – The dangers of wishing your day away

How many of us wish it was Friday already when Monday morning rolls round? Do you often look at your watch and hope it is lunchtime or 5pm? You are not alone.

There is a film on the dangers of wishing our lives away. An Adam Sandler movie called ‘Click’. Sandler’s character, a workaholic architect, buys an all singing all dancing remote from Bed Bath and Beyond. He quickly discovers he can fast forward at various speeds through the most boring parts of his life, including having sex with his wife!

Of course, the novelty wears out when he fast forwards to his promotion and discovers he lost his wife, children, and father in the meantime. The film is desperate to provide us with a moral to the story, which is no doubt, be careful what you wish for and savor every moment.

In real life, it is difficult to savor every moment when your life sucks. Your job is deathly boring, your relationship is going through the motions, and you have no outside interests of real note.

So how do we stop wishing our life away?

The dangers are obvious. Death will come to us soon enough; are we fast forwarding to that? Well obviously not; we just want to fast forward past the boring bits.

Let’s take a look at the death bed test. Will you be seriously pissed with yourself when you are taking your last breath and recall all the wasted time twiddling your thumbs wishing for the day, week or year to zoom by? Yes, you will. But that probably doesn’t concern you much now. It is now we have to focus on, and your now is not looking too rosy from where I am sitting. So what is the answer?

Let me take your mind back to last weekend, if not last weekend, the last time you did something where you looked at your watch and realized time had flown by. Now ask yourself why was that? What were you doing? Probably something you really enjoy.

So what is the answer? You know what the answer is already. You just became accustomed to living like this.

We can get used to anything. And I mean anything. Here is an unpleasant example for you to ponder. If you had a pair of your favorite jeans on and wore them 24 hours a day for three months the stench oozing from you would probably become both familiar and pleasant to you. In fact, you would find comfort in your own smell.

However, once you were forced to do something about it, after your parents refused to let you in their home or your partner finally reached the end of their tolerance, there would be an initial feeling of loss when the jeans were cut off. However, once you showered, smelt fresh as a daisy, and were now sporting a brand new pair of Levi’s, reality hits you, “What the hell got into me!”

We all need a jolt to get out of our comfortable stasis, even though you know it is neither comfortable or productive.

In this case you must provide that jolt.

What does the jolt look like?

There are two kinds of jolts, in fact. The short term and long term kick in the pants.

In order to disrupt this stasis we must start with a bolt of adrenaline. That requires you to find something that takes your mind off the monotony and fires you up. Do something different.

What is on your bucket list? If you don’t have one, write one. Go on an adventure vacation, start self defense classes, learn how to dance, go on a wine tasting course, write a book.

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The short term kick in the ass moves the needle a little, but if you are not careful the needle will fall right back in place in a few short days or weeks.

The long term is all about elevating yourself to a new level of productivity so that you pass the death bed test. Here we are talking about setting goals. What does life look like in five years? What do you want it to look like?

Now you must go out and make that life you desire and deserve happen. Don’t be afraid of making hard decisions to achieve your goals. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.

Happy Monday!

Banner Image: Time slipping away. Image Credit – Aron Visuals