Grocery Store Greeting

I went to the grocery store yesterday morning and the associate who was monitoring the self-checkouts greeted me and asked how I was doing.  I said, “Good, how are you?” in which he replied, “Well, it’s a Monday.  I hope the week goes by fast.”  Considering that it was only 6:30 in the morning and I still hadn’t finished my coffee, the easiest and most socially acceptable response was the only thing that I could come up with: “Yeah, I hope it does, too.”  This left me with a stinging feeling in my gut.

It’s sad how the norm is the feeling of constantly looking forward to the weekend.  While I am confident that there are many people out there who love their jobs and don’t necessarily wake up every morning to check off the day on their calendar in the countdown to Friday, it still seems like the typical feeling is to want to get to the weekend.  As much as I love my weekends, my response to the grocery store associate wasn’t entirely truthful.

One of my worst fears is to get to the end of my days and regret how I chose to live my life.  Maybe that sounds a little bit too much, but stay with me.  If I lived every week just waiting for the weekend and then started it all over again on Monday, how would that feel at the end of my life?  How would I feel if I knew that I spent my time on this earth simply counting down the days until my time off from work?  I’ll tell you:  I will feel terrible.  I don’t like to live with regrets, but I assure you, I will regret that.  

Let’s all try something.  Let’s identify a long-term struggle.  Whether it’s a job you don’t like, a relationship you don’t enjoy, or whatever it may be that is constantly a barrier to truly enjoying your life.  I understand some things aren’t necessarily in our power to change, but think about the things you do have control over.  What can you do to improve your life?  What sacrifices might you have to make to one day truly live a life where you don’t live for the weekend?  Maybe it’s going back to school, maybe it’s finding a new job, or pursuing other relationships.  I think we all have it in us to create a life that we can love.