No Workin’ for the Weak End: It’s Just About… Life.

No how. No way. No regrets. Not you. Not ever. Not if you want to live.

Yes, the weekend arrives. The end to the week almost always has significance in its symbolism, a time to catch up, relax, get some personal things accomplished, enjoy time with family, friends, in most cases it makes you feel good. Years ago Loverboy created a classic song, Everybody’s Workin’ for the Weekend. But is that right? Each week do we put too much emphasis on just a couple of days which are over and done with in the blink of an eye? You bet. I mean two days out of seven? That’s not fair, those percentages stink.

So what if? What if you could capture that same weekend feeling your whole life? You can if you move through life with purpose, with a reason, with an attitude of giving it your all and never giving up.

So how do you get to the happy place? I’ve been thinking a lot about that recently. On vacation I wrapped up reading, The ONE Thing, by Gary Keller. In one section of his book called, The Journey, Keller describes how he searched to find out what life is all about, so he talked to people nearing the end of theirs. He discovered one simple point of view: “A life worth living might be measured in many ways, but the one that stands out above all others is living a life of no regrets.”

But what kind of regrets? To find out Keller did something I always admire, his research led him to read another authors work (remember, reading means everything), and he chose Bonnie Ware’s book, The Five Regrets of the Dying:
“…Bronnie found that common themes surfaced again and again. In descending order, the five most common were these: I wish that I’d let myself be happier – too late they realized happiness is a choice; I wish I’d stayed in touch with my friends – too often they failed to give them the time and effort they deserved; I wish I had the courage to express my feelings – too frequently shut mouths and shuttered feelings weighed too heavy to handle; I wish I hadn’t worked so hard – too much time spent making a life over building a life, caused too much remorse. As tough as those were, one stood out above them all. The most common regret was this: I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”

Easy to decipher, no regrets.

Keller wraps it up this way: “So make sure every day you do what matters most. When you know what matters most, everything makes sense. When you don’t know what matters most, anything makes sense. The best lives aren’t led this way.”

We’re all born into this world, naked and crying. But we’re also born bold, with no true fear. Those fears are developed over time. But if you had no fear, what could you accomplish? It’s worth thinking about, to be inspired, and in turn to take action.

Don’t get caught in the trap of simply workin’ for the weekend, work on you, on your gift, so your life has no weak end.

I’ll leave you with this, from one of the greatest authors of all time, Mark Twain: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

And until next time, thanks for taking the time.

(The other) Mark