“What you spend your days doing is what you spend your life doing.”
Last night, I was flicking through Richard Carlson’s “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff” (which is – now that I’ve some of it – not my sort of book (a bit too cheesy and common-sense-y), but I picked it up at a charity shop for 50p) looking for a spark of inspiration.
I came across “Remind Yourself that When You Die, Your “In Basket” Won’t Be Empty” (let’s not talk about spurious capitalization here …). I think that that’s not at all catchy. But it made me think of the phrase above.
It’s a phrase I’ve lived with for several years now. I’m not sure where I first picked it up, nor when. During University – when there were a million and one different things I could do with my day (academic work of various sorts, lots of societies, reading, cooking, blogging …) – it was particularly helpful. Is this something I would want to spend my life doing? Or is it just a distraction?
It continues to be useful. Reminds me that spending time with my family shouldn’t be put off – and neither should paperwork (as in, ‘you spend your day worrying and procrastinating about paperwork … you spend your life worrying about paperwork’). Helps me to try and get some balance in each 24-hour period – and if that’s impossible, then at least I’ve noticed that this day has been particularly unbalanced, and can consciously try to rectify it another time.
It keeps me asking the question “What do you want to spend your life doing?” and then trying to implement it right away. That’s very valuable.
Is this something you’ve thought about before? Do you see life differently? I’d love your comments.
