Thought of the Day #58/#4/2022
Why Gary Vaynerchuk Says: Stop Living for the Weekend
The holiday is Over — Back to work and what I learned from it
I can’t remember when I had the urge to go on holiday for the last time.
What does the holiday mean to start with? Let’s do a proper definition:
When I was working for big corporations and also in school, the approach to life was:
- Work hard in a job just for the sake of money
- Embrace the weekend in which you can do whatever you want
- Go on holiday for five weeks to refill your batteries and go back to work
As a result, generations of people in the industrial world spent most of their lives in jobs they hated.
They start living for the weekends and the 2–5 weeks of holidays each year — dependent on the region of the world they live in.
A job is a means to contribute to society, and everybody should do that, but here is the thing:
Gary V. — Your sh*t is broken
Gary Vaynerchuk reached fame as an influencer in the last ten years and has a unique opinion on society.
In interviews in 2017–19, he tackled the way people set up their lives.
- Doing jobs, they don’t like
- Living for the Friday nights
- Curing the hangover on Saturday and Sunday
- Hating Monday mornings when they need to go back to work
- And killing it on vacation
He puts it in exact words:
If you live that way — your sh*t is broken. Change it, it is killing you.
Design your life in a way that every day is a holiday
I can’t remember exactly the date and time when I first got aware of this approach to life.
In my memory, it was somewhen in the late 90s at a martial arts seminar where we were talking about life itself.
One of the master teachers — a man in his 60s — pointed out that many people get a job after graduating that they hate doing. Not everybody is suited for corporate life — it is excellent for many people, but for some, it isn’t.
He attributed this observation to different personalities. Some want to work 9 to 5, go home to their families, and are happy this way.
While others feel different sparks in their hearts: Some might want to change the world as an entrepreneur, others might want to be more creative or travel the world.
He recommended that people first find out what they want to accomplish in life and design it accordingly, rather than jumping head over heels into a corporate job.
When it isn’t your calling to be part of a larger corporate team, it may well lead to depression or, in the worst case, suicide.
So make every day like a holiday: The best day of your life.
I heard the words but didn’t think much about it and jumped right on the corporate career path.
It was the usual thing to do in the late 90s. Get a master’s degree, graduate, and off you go to a big corporation.
Three years later, I gained a 30-kilogram weight and wasn’t the happiest guy in the world.
I went back to martial arts, skipped the evening dinner/drinking sessions with colleagues, and met the master teacher again.
He grinned and asked: “In which corporation do you work? Do you like it?”
I partially liked it, and there was nothing wrong with the companies I worked in, but I missed the days at the university.
I could be creative, learn new things, write, speak in public and tell stories. While the corporate work was different, I had fun and didn’t feel like I fit in.
So I started to change my life.
Find the little thing that makes a difference
The first thought that popped up in my mind was:
What does that mean? Should I be on the beach every day and party all night long?
In the 90s, the usual picture was promoted by travel agencies as the perfect holiday. Don’t do anything during the day and party at night.
Meanwhile, many people learned that this is an unhealthy lifestyle. But back then and even today, it is still their life every year for many people.
And just sitting around doing nothing wasn’t what the master teacher in the martial arts meant. He explained that every person gets energy from particular activities.
For some, it might be exercising, for others doing something within their community, while for some, it could be doing nothing at all and having a cozy dinner with friends.
He advised finding those little things that make a huge difference and focusing on those activities that provide genuine happiness.
…And then don’t quit your job to do it all day long. Instead, start building a habit.
Every time I bring up this story of finding happiness in daily life, one of the responses is:
Ok and then I quit my job and do only that thing. I’d be broke in no time.
The amazing thing is that an activity that provides energy doesn’t need 8–10 hours per day to achieve that result.
The teacher's opinion was that even 5 minutes per day make a huge difference. Under no circumstances he’d recommend prematurely getting divorced, quitting the job to live in a Japanese Dojo to practice Martial Arts every day, 8 hours per day.
Instead, he said, do 5 minutes every day as a starter. It helps to give life a better direction.
Later in life, I came across Atomic Habits, written by James Clear.
James Clear summarized the approach very nicely on his blog.
- Start with a small step — like 5 minutes per day
- Like 5 minutes of stretching
- In Week 2, you do 10 minutes
- Week 3 15 minutes
And eventually, you will reach a point in life where you are satisfied and don’t need to add more time.
For some, it might be doing the activity all day long; for others, it might be that 15 minutes per day is enough to make a significant difference.
And this is what I did when I was at the wrong place in my life. I started doing Martial Arts and ended up with 1–2 hours of exercise per day.
Exercising alone or in a group makes me genuinely happy, and 1–2 hours are sufficient. It is also doable in a busy life. Sometimes 1 hour might not work due to other chores, but there is always room for a 15–30 minutes walk that helps increase Serotonin levels.
I learned from this experience that unhappiness in life is a temporary and fixable imbalance in the life setup. It doesn’t need big moves to fix that, and a small step sideways often makes a huge difference.
And yet, we all stand in our way from time to time.
Meanwhile, I have created small time-efficient habits in my life that make every day feel like a holiday. Among those are exercising, meditating, writing, podcasting, and the good thing is that they fit perfectly in a busy work schedule so that I don’t need to make massive breaks or significant cuts from time to time.
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This article is for informational purposes only. It should not be considered Financial, Investment, or Legal Advice. Consult a financial, investment, or legal professional before making significant decisions.
