I could write this article by stating the obvious reasons why it’s important to take a full day off for yourself by saying it will help you relax, reduce stress, help you have fun, etc., but we all know those obvious reasons.
Getting to some less obvious reasons are that you will actually be more productive taking a full day off each week because you want to do more in less time so you can have that free day. Think of how much work you get done before your vacation and you’ll get a good idea of what I’m talking about.
And an even less obvious reason, but subtle one for taking a full day off just for yourself, is that it gives you that feeling of control. Rather than be tossed about by daily events, you have this day as an anchor that you set, a day in which you go and do WHATEVER your heart desires without feeling constrained by work or other people.
Get a massage, run by the beach, explore the city, hike up the mountains, lounge in the pool sipping a margarita, visit an amusement park, read a book, go to the movies in the early morning, visit a museum, play golf, whatever your heart desires.
On a side note, it’s important to budget money for such free days. I highly recommend setting aside 10% of your earnings every month for these types of days so you can spend the money guilt free.
For those of you wondering how that can be possible budget wise when you have to save 10% in savings and a certain percentage for investing and set aside money for giving on top of all the bills you have, let me say just this.
Obviously to make this work at first, you have to reduce your budget. If that means driving a less expensive car so the monthly payments and insurance and maintenance are smaller so be it. If it means moving to another place in town, where the rent/mortgage is less expensive, so be it. If it means having to look at your budget to cut the extraneous, go right ahead.
Because the truth of the matter is, you will feel much richer when you have these days off to do whatever you want AND have the money to finance them guilt free than to be making all this money but have it go out the expense column with no time to enjoy yourself at all.
Most people would LOVE to have truly FREE days for themselves every week but are chained to the office at work even on the weekends by doing work from home, chained to their expenses that they mistakenly think of as assets, chained to a lifestyle that ROBS them of time, which is infinitely more valuable than money.
You can always make more money.
You cannot make more time.
You have these free days for time to get some “air” instead of swimming with your head in the water all the time. When you come up for “air”, not only do you get valuable oxygen to replenish your muscles but you also get to see where you are and where you want to go – to realign yourself to your vision and make sure that when you put your head back into the water, you’re heading to where you want to be.
It is SO easy to just keep on swimming without stopping and looking around you to see if you’re heading in the right direction.
It doesn’t matter how hard you swim if you’re heading in the wrong direction.
When you have these free days, I highly recommend you set aside a small portion to think about your life. Not a whole lot. It can be an hour or two. You can walk by the beach, hike up a mountain, walk in the forest, do whatever you want and just think about your life.
Come up for “air”. Look around. See where you are in relation to where you want to be.
If you don’t know where that is, meditate on what’s important in your life. Slow down. Be honest with yourself and what you want out of life.
If you do know what you want, run the visual tape in your mind. Revel in the details of your visualization. Get excited once more.
It’s through these types of activities, where you set aside everything else so you have complete focus and honesty with yourself that you start getting ideas from your subconscious mind as to how you can go about achieving what you truly want out of life.
It works best in a relaxed state and when you’re having fun so you can do this mediation thing in the morning and just have fun throughout the rest of your day to let your mind work on it and deliver those valuable ideas to you.
I just described a small portion of the benefits you can experience by taking a full day off for yourself a week but listing them on paper doesn’t really do the benefits any sort of justice. You cannot even begin to process the full benefits consciously. You can’t capture it with words. It can only be fully experienced through feeling.
And when you actually set aside time to do this every week, the benefits will pleasantly surprise you to the point where you couldn’t even fathom having a week without a day off for yourself.
Make it a ritual.
See the intangible benefits arise from having such free days.
And you’ll find yourself very, very relaxed and amazed.
