This week I will celebrate another year of existence. Another 52 weekends gone that I can never get back. They went by so fast. How did I spend them?
Weekends spent visiting family members who were ill, in the hospital, or at funerals – 10
Weekends spent visiting family members who were not ill – 9
Weekend spent volunteering for master gardener or archery events – 6
Weekends spent preparing for and traveling for business – 4
Weekends spent in the garden – 7
Weekends spent at the cabin (since 6-1-12, cleaning and repairing) – 5
Weekends spent fishing or hunting – 4
Weekends I cannot remember what I did (it’s an age thing) – 7
Overall, I’m okay with my choices of activities. Although, a note to my family – Let’s try to reduce the first item to zero this coming year.
You may be asking, “What is it with weekends?”
A year or so ago I read an article about the importance of spending your weekends wisely. You are given a finite number of them. If the average person lives to be 75, they have 3,900 weekends assigned to them. This number can never increase. It can only decrease as the weekends get used up. Now let’s say that until you are 18 you have little control over your weekends as your parents have a larger say in what your choices are. That leaves you with 2,964 weekends to spend however you choose to. Now at 18, that seems like a huge number. Nothing but time on your hands. When you reach 40, that number has dropped to 1,820. At 50, you have 1,300. At 60, 780. At 70, 260!
On one hand that is a lot of weekend choices to make. On the other hand, how many of your weekends are either planned for you, you are forced to do something unexpected, or they just slip by without a thought? It kind of scares me that 15% of my weekends went by and I could not tell you how I spent them. Was I productive? Did I write as much as I wanted to? Did I enjoy them? Or, did I waste them?
Don’t get me wrong here. I don’t plan my entire year of weekends in advance. However, I have started to question how I spend my weekends. Before I agree to tie up a weekend, I think about how else I could spend that weekend. I do plan a few weekends a year based on hunting seasons, archery or master gardener events, and fishing openers.
I know enough to understand that life will throw unexpected things at you (Please refer to the first group of weekends above). I am glad that I was able to be there and support my family. It was my choice to be there. In my opinion, I used those weekends wisely. The point is, you get a limited number of those precious days when you don’t have to be at work trying to make a living. How many you have left is a mystery. Remember, we will not all be granted 3,900 weekends. How you choose to spend them is up to you. I intend to spend a lot more of mine sitting on the deck at the cabin, writing!
How are you going to spend you next 52 weekends?
Tales From The Hare 