“Live to work or work to live?” It’s a good question you should be asking yourself regularly. While wealth can make a miserable life more comfortable as I heard someone once put it recently, it can’t make a miserable life happy. Happiness is a state of mind that you yourself control, wealthy or not.

I’ve just returned from a long weekend (actually, an extra long weekend as I took a day off my work in addition to the three day weekend) where I spent some time high up in the beautiful Laurentian Mountains near Mont Tremblant, Quebec. There is nothing like a few days with good friends, good food, good camaraderie, fresh air and a relaxation period for the mind and soul while the body engages in fun and pleasurable activities.

I once was acquainted with a woman who owned a hair salon. Every six weeks, she would leave her shop for 5 consecutive days and completely take herself away from her business. Her husband remarked to her, “You’ll never become wealthy taking so much time away so frequently from your business.”

She replied, “But darling, I work to live. I work as hard as I can and as much as I can for six weeks so that I am able to enjoy five days every six weeks in ways that relax and recharge me.”

She was not always able to “get away” for five days every six weeks, especially when she first started her business. But that was one of her goals that she held in her mind that she wanted to do, and she never lost sight of the fact that as far as she was concerned, she worked in order to enjoy her life.

Many people who realize that they need to get serious about their wealth creation or life goal achievement forget about or don’t make it a priority to take time off to enjoy, relax and recharge. And it can be difficult to force yourself to do this – sometimes even guilt might set in when you are taking time away especially when you have not completed many of the tasks on your “to-do” list.

But from experience, I can attest to the importance of making it a regular habit to set aside at least 24 hours each and every week to personal relaxation away from work. You might get more done at first if you don’t take this break – but in the long run, you will find yourself in a rut, discouraged, and possibly even having forgotten how to enjoy life! Is that what you are working for? In the long run, you’ll likely achieve more when you take regular breaks from your work and learn to work hard and then play hard.

If you don’t take regular breaks, you may end up forgetting what it is exactly you are working for. You may lose sight of your major values. Of course, taking too many breaks when you can’t afford it or should be working can have similar effects as well.

When you start out working towards goal achievement, you likely will spend long hard hours at your work. Sacrificing leisure time especially at the beginning will likely be a requirement in order to achieve any goal that you have set for yourself. Giving up a few hours in the evening of TV in order to move yourself ahead will probably be a sacrifice you will need to make if you want to achieve goals in the future of being financially independent and doing many of the activities you’re watching others do while you watch TV.

But here’s some guidelines for you while you attempt to find that balance of work and pleasure that is right for you:

1. Set aside one hour per day of down time for yourself.

Many people who are stuck in jobs they do not like will be required to work hours of their time that they are not at their regular jobs in order to start their own businesses or discover those revenue streams that are going to help them quit their jobs and/or do the things they want to do or have the things they want to have.

Good time management is essential, and asking yourself the question regularly, “Is this the best use of my time right now for what I want to achieve or do in the future?” is a fantastic habit to get your mind into.

If your present employer gives you an hour for lunch, could you eat your lunch in 15 minutes and then devote the other 45 minutes to learning the new skills you need, or working on self-improvement exercises? Or some other tasks that can be done in those 45 minutes?

But while you are thinking of that question, be sure to set aside at least one hour a day where you do not think about your work or what you need to do. Instead, go for a walk. Spend time laughing and giggling with children. Savor that hour and enjoy it completely! Realize that this is what you are working for – and then resolve that over time, you are going to increase this daily “me time” to 1.5 hour periods, then 2 hour periods, then 3 hour periods, as you achieve your other goals.

2. Take 24 Hours Off Every 7 Days.

If you are just starting out on your goal achievement programs, this might be the most difficult thing to discipline yourself to do. There are always so many things to do, so much still to get done! Feelings of guilt may creep up when you take that 24 hours off. I know – been there, done that, and realized how nasty it can be not to take myself away for 24 hours every 7 days. But the problem is, when you don’t do this, you become a “work-aholic” – someone who is sitting down to work – but isn’t actually getting much done.

3. Plan one full seven day period away per year.

If you are just starting out on your goal achievement program and are working extra hours, have decided it’s time to sacrifice much of your habitual way of living that you’ve got yourself into previously, this might be the most difficult to do in the first year, maybe even two years. And perhaps realistically, it just won’t be possible in your first or second year.

But do plan it. Plan it for your third year. As a minimum. And once you’ve achieved it, resolve to increase it to two weeks within two years. Four weeks within three years. This could mean 7 days at four different times of the year.

Excuse: I don’t have the resources yet!

Ah, the mind can play games! Especially if you’re feeling guilty about something. Oh yes you do have the resources!

I can’t tell you exactly how to spend the hour per day of “downtime” I’m recommending you discipline yourself to do every day, but one of your goals should include a physical fitness goal. Consider taking that one hour of downtime per day and doing some fun physical activity that you enjoy – away from your work – and you’re using your time efficiently. Not only are you working toward the fitness goal, you’re doing something fun that you like to do.

I’m sure you can think of other ways of spending that downtime that is not simply vegging out, but also will work in your favor to achievement.

One day a week off? Same thing – spend it volunteering with a service club. Spend it with the most valuable people in your life. You don’t have to have money or other property to spend 24 hours a day doing something that is relaxing, recharging and helps you to remember why you work. You could use this time to take up a new hobby that you always wanted to learn but instead have wasted previously in front of the television set.

Seven days off a year? Yes, if you’re like many, you might dream of vacations in tropical climates, laying on a beach, climbing mountains, or visiting foreign lands. And yes, someday you will be able to do this if you are working on achieving your goals. But just because you are not wealthy does not mean you cannot take seven days away.

You could take your seven days in the spring and put in a new garden – then use the daily hour to maintain to it. You could take the seven days to find a friend to walk and discover trails in your neighborhood. You could spend the seven days volunteering all of your time to those in more need than you. You could spend the seven days writing in a Journal or starting the book you always wanted to write. Seven days away does not have to mean an expensive resort vacation to some tropical land – although if that is what you want to do, you will be much closer to achieving that by ensuring you discipline yourself from the start to work very very hard when you need to, and to take a daily hour for yourself away from your work, a day a week away, and work towards a week a year.

Benefits:

In reality, there are more benefits to disciplining yourself to work hard but take the hour each day, and day each week than simply a relaxation benefit. As mentioned above, depending on what you choose to do, you may also end up working towards a physical fitness goal – that will have multiple effects on your energy levels while you are working.

For me personally, I can relate that this past weekend, spent in the company of good friends ended up generating new business ideas that I didn’t even think about until I had arrived home and back to work. The fun and easy conversations with friends doing things we loved to do together, enjoying activities that we all enjoy meant that when I sat down at my desk this morning, I had several new ideas from all of that interaction that might make for the seeds of new revenue streams! It is quite possible that none of those ideas in of themselves are worth much – I wrote some of them down, and will likely discard some of them quickly, but some that interest me I’ll think about more, and see what other ideas they might generate that might become revenue generating opportunities.

Revenue generating opportunities that will go toward me achieving the goal of working to live!

Perhaps taking 5 days off every six weeks like the owner of the hair salon business I referred to above is not for you. But the thing is, it was clear in her mind what she wanted to work for, and what she wanted to enjoy in her life and she felt no guilt at all about working very very hard for six weeks and then enjoying several days off.

A few years ago, I had occasion to speak with the husband of the hair salon business owner. Sadly, she had passed away unexpectedly at an earlier than expected age.

“But she lived her life, knew what she wanted to do to enjoy it, and did that,” her husband related to me. “Even though she died young, she passed away owing nothing to anyone, and had few regrets about anything.” He was very proud of his wife, and was learning from the example she had set.

She lived within her means, but lived it as fully as she could and played as hard as she could. She worked to live and enjoy life and planned her work and her labor around enjoying her life. She worked for the future, but did not forget about the present. She found a balance in her life, where she had planned to enjoy even more time off as she was able, but sure she was able to have some time off to enjoy.

She also enjoyed her work and made some sacrifices in order to get to that point.

So what are you going to resolve to do yourself?

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