Do your best to take care of your week, and you’ll take care of your life.
This may be something you understand on the surface level, but do you live by this idea?
Many of us actually tend to favor looking through one of the lenses below:
- The Today Mindset: You focus on getting as much done as possible each day
- The Monthly Mindset: You think about how you can have a great month
- The Year Mindset: You often dream about what you plan on achieving this year
- The Retiree Mindset: You reflect on how magical life will be once you finally retire
None of these mindsets are optimal.
That’s because they either produce too much pressure (the today mindset) or they provide a likelihood of procrastination (all the rest). Think of always looking at the distant horizon instead of doing what you can to live meaningfully this week.
I would argue that most people, unconsciously fall into one of previously mentioned mindsets. I used to lead my life from the monthly mindset. Every task, or goal, and philosophy I used to have, was about having the best month possible. Let’s see why this is a poor strategy.
Why the Monthly Mindset is Inefficient
A couple of years ago, I made it my goal to read four books per month. But month after month, I wasn’t able to reach my target. Because I had such a large window of time, I could easily slack off for a couple of weeks at the start.
So I would end up only reading right towards the end of each month due to my deadline. You can put that down to a mixture of laziness and poor strategy, but it was largely because of the strategy.
How Focusing on the Week Changed My Life
So, instead of making it my goal to read four books per month, I decided to read one book per week. Same result, but slightly, different tactic. The subtle shift from focusing on the month to the week massively increased my consistency and focus.
I started reading more books and enjoyed the process a whole lot more.
I then started thinking about how I could apply this concept to all the areas of my life…
The value in this small story is that the time-window with which you view your life, can dramatically impact your results. To generate more consistency and appreciation, everything in your life gets better when you see it through the lens of this current week.
So if you want a great life, do what you can to build it this week.
Questions to ask yourself:
- How can I implement the most enjoyable workout routine for me this week?
- How can I do what I love more often this week?
- How can I create a bigger impact this week?
- How can I take more risks this week?
- How can I have more fun this week?
Focusing on completing daily tasks to achieve your goals is inflexible.
Focusing on the month is a better strategy, but still, it lacks sufficient positive pressure.
If you choose to focus on your year — there’s hardly any pressure to take action. There’s a chance of losing track of your goals, and you can quickly revert to living without intention.
Living with the retiree mindset forces you to delay living your best life in your youngest years.
The Week: The Perfect balance between Focus and Flexibility
I’ve used this ‘weekly mindset’ to play my favorite sport more often, improve my fitness, and write more articles. Life feels a lot easier when you experience life through the viewpoint of a week. Your week is not an isolated series of days.
What you do during your week represents the person who you are becoming.
Take care of the week, and you’ll end up taking care of your month, year, and life.
Call To Action
If you want to stop feeling distracted and experience a life that’s twice as meaningful — read my free book on spiritual productivity.