How to stop living for the weekend and build a life you love all week

On June 14, 2021
By Chaya Ben-Shabat
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We’ve all heard the phrase ‘stop living for the weekend and build a life you love all week’ – but how do you do that?

Get clear on what a life you love looks like

What does a life you love all week actually look like? Have you ever stopped to write it down?

What kind of life lived day in and day out would:

Totally fire you up
Make you feel excited
Inspire you to show up every single day
Jump out of bed, eager to embrace and attack the day

Of course, no matter what job, career or life you have, we always want to have a vacation or take a break at some point, and that’s totally normal. It’s not only expected, but it’s part natural and healthy of the human cycle.

We experience ebb and flow, and we want to be able to get away, recharge our batteries and refuel from time to time. That’s perfectly normal and you want to factor that in when it comes to building your dream life.

But what we’re talking about here is creating a life that isn’t full of the dread of having to get up every morning and go do something just because it gives you a paycheck. Or to do something because it’s what’s expected or required of you.

You want to do something because you love doing it, and because you’ve created a life for yourself that Pumps. You. Up.

Imagine a life you love

To get clear about how you want your life to look, identify a career or project that excites you. Beyond that, what else is there? We’ll assume that you’re already in the process of building your career or a company at this point.

This is great, but instead of aiming toward the finish line and living for when you’ve arrived, think about how you can create a life you love right now.

I’m a really big believer in the fact that there IS no arriving. Life is all about the journey. We hear that all the time, but it’s not a cliché statement – it’s true.

We’ve got to figure out how to create a life that we love right now instead of waiting to create a certain level of success or financial target that makes us happy.

How can we create a life that we enjoy living and that we live in the thrill of the moment? How can we be full of gratitude, awe and wonder every single day?

We have to get very specific on what that looks like. And, we have to set up a framework for ourselves through our daily life that triggers reminders for us so we live present to the moment. We can’t get swept away by the stress and drama of whatever is happening around us.

Trigger reminders

There are two anchors, or bookends, that you can place on the day that will create those trigger reminders – a morning routine and an evening routine. I also find that if you give yourself a midday reminder, that will help tremendously.

Creating a morning routine that sets you up for success and really helps you create a strong start will also help you get your mindset, perspective and energetic frequency going exactly the way that you want it.

Another piece is the evening routine. This allows you to recalibrate so that no matter what has gone south or sideways during the day, you can finish strong and reset your vibrational frequency before heading to bed.

You can refocus on gratitude and wipe the slate clean of whatever happened during the day. You can learn the lessons from all the interesting bumps of the ride of the day, and reassess and reposition yourself for a fresh start tomorrow.

This is so powerful and important for setting the stage for a successful day tomorrow. I’m a big believer that your success tomorrow is directly correlated to getting to bed on time tonight and having a great night’s sleep.

That great night’s sleep will come in large part because of the mental work and the emotional, soul-cleansing work that you do at night, right before you crawl into bed.

Watch the video to hear me explain these tips.

A Midday refresher

Also, build in a quick midday refresher for yourself. I use a reminder – an alarm that goes off on my phone. A message flashes up on the screen to remind me of what I want to focus on during the day.

At all three of the touchpoints, I actually review my affirmations and visualizations. I’ve done it for years. Those two minutes (or more if there’s time) to reflect, no matter what goals I’m working on or phase of life I’m in, make a big difference.

Those three times in the day when I pause are my secret sauce. I’m not kidding you. First, I set myself up for success with my morning routine. I work to start my day off right, before I check my email, messages or social media.

Then at midday, my reminder pops up. It can be jolting and shake me out of whatever may be happening in the midst of my day. I can be going at a thousand miles an hour, but no matter what’s going on, I stop when the alarm goes off.

I give myself those few minutes to recalibrate, refuel and refocus. It doesn’t have to take more than a couple of minutes, but it helps. And my evening review allows me to do a cleansing of what didn’t go well and to refocus on gratitude.

It lets me pull the good out and to look at what went well today. What am I proud of? What did I learn? What can we celebrate?

Those three touch points allow me in large part to stay focused and present to the moment, regardless of anything else that’s going on around me.

A schedule that moves you toward a life you love

I definitely create a schedule that gives me space for those morning and evening routines. I give myself space on the weekends and with my family several times a year. And, take time at least once a quarter and longer chunks throughout the year.

I create a schedule for myself during the year with buffers built in. One of my favorite life philosophies is, ‘How do you live your dream life? You schedule it.’

Taking the time to schedule your year and giving yourself time to refuel and have a break allows you to live a life you love right now. Even while you’re building your bigger dreams.

Use the three daily routines to help you build a life you love all week and stop living for the weekend. It’s not rocket science – it really is this simple. With a few tweaks and a little bit of focus, you can totally transform yourself – immediately.

You don’t have to change your income or your outer situation. It’s an inside job and you can start living a life you love right now.