Our time is valuable. We all get that.
We also know we have a limited amount of time every day. We all get 24 hours or 1,440 minutes or 86,600 seconds.
Once those are gone, the day is done, never to be repeated again.
It’s the way of productivity. It’s the way of the successful. It’s the way of the wise.
Waste The Day
It’s also the way of the dull. The boring. The stickler.
No one actually counts each second of their day. Few account for every minute they have.
Regardless of what people share online, we need to spend time wasting our days away once in awhile.
Not every day. But a day here or there.
Wasting the day away gives us a nice break from the rigid schedules we set for ourselves.
When we’re not accounting for the time in our days, we get to lose ourselves in the fun things of life. We get to play. We get to explore. We get to enjoy.
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Do you remember when you were a kid?
I do. I remember throwing on my rollerblades and skating down the road. Nowhere to go. No one to see.
Just the open road and my blades. Those were the days.
I’d spend hours outside blazing a trail, going nowhere fast.
This could be considered wasting away the day. I considered it a day well-spent.
I was able to get outside.
Enjoy the fresh air. Feel the wind against my face. Push myself to the limits.
Or maybe it was playing with my GI Joes in the house.
I have fond memories of having my Joe’s rappel down a string hung from a plant hanger. They’d also battle against the evil Cobra and his minions.
It was play time. It was fun. It was wasting time.
Looking in, you’d think there was nothing there. And there really wasn’t. It was about enjoying myself.
Now, it’s not playing with toys or blading through the streets (though it sounds like fun).
I find myself wasting the day by going to a fun movie or watching a concert or flying my drone.
I lose myself in these activities. I’ve come to terms with this. I’m okay with it.
And that’s what wasting our days should be about. Those days should be the days we are able to let our hair down and enjoy ourselves.
So, today, I’m giving you permission. Go waste the day. Go do something you’ve wanted to do for a long time.
Go enjoy yourself.
Question: When’s the last time you wasted a day? How’d you feel afterwards? Why?
Let’s talk about this in the comment section.
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Photo:Barn Images/Flickr
This essay originally appeared on Joseph Lalonde.
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