Photo by Maz Hewitt

Well the weekend has come and gone again. Two weeks ago I wrote an article called 7 Tips To Make This A Great Week that focused on the week ahead. Today, though, I want to share some thoughts that came to me Sunday evening as I reflected on the week, and in particular, the weekend just gone.

I went into the weekend with very little planned. My only vague goals were to spend time with my family, exercise, and do some writing for this blog. As it turned out, Saturday and Sunday were distinctly different days.

Saturday was a good day, but it wasn’t great. It was the type of day that when I reflected on the day before going to bed, I asked myself “what did I actually do today”. The answer was “not much”. I certainly spent time with my family, but apart from that there was nothing of note. Now I should point out that I am a fan of the occasional lazy day, but this wasn’t even a lazy day – it was just a nothing day.

On Sunday I again woke up with no plans. However, due to my inactivity on Saturday I was feeling restless. I asked myself: “if I could do anything today, what would it be?” The answer came easily: ski. And so I did. For the first time in 3 years (due to living in Australia for most of that time), I threw on my skis and hit the slopes.

If I can go off for a moment on a self-indulgent tangent, I want to tell you why I love skiing. Prior to coming to Canada for the first time in 2003/04 (at the age of 21), I had never seen snow before. So anything to do with snow (the white fluffy kind) gets me excited. I am like a child who looks at snow and sees a magical winter wonderland. Add the physical activity and the being in nature, and you can see why it is my favorite sport.

So anyway, Sunday was a great day – the type I will remember for a long time. And since the mountains are on our doorstep here in Vancouver, it didn’t take up too much of the day to go skiing. This meant I still got to spend quality time with my family.

The spontaneity of Sunday was fun, but I actually take something quite different away from this past weekend. For someone like myself, who often takes a casual “go with the flow” approach to weekends, I can see there is a lot to be gained from giving proper thought to the weekend ahead of time. I was lucky Sunday morning that the stars were aligned and I was free to indulge in some spontaneous fun – but something could quite easily have kept me from the slopes. For example, anyone with kids knows that a babysitter can be hard to come by, especially at the last minute.

So to summarize my thoughts:

• It’s good to have a plan (even just a loose one!), whether it is for the weekend or life in general. Without a plan you may just find that a whole lot of nothing happens (like my last Saturday).
• There is a difference between wishing time away waiting for the weekend (or whenever your free time is), and giving the weekend some thought ahead of time. A plan, or even simply a few ideas, set you up to enjoy your free time to its full potential.
• Ask yourself: “what is the one thing I would most like to do today/ this weekend/ in my next holidays?” Then ask yourself: “What’s stopping me?” Don’t accept a poor answer.
• I find I spend a lot of time reading, thinking, and writing about happiness for this blog. Sunday was a good reminder to do things that bring me pleasure.

So then, how do you approach your weekends? Do you have them nicely planned days in advance, or do you normally just go with the flow?

(ps…. you will be glad to hear I am practicing what I preach – this upcoming weekend we head to Whistler, the home of the 2010 Winter Olympics. No wonder I wrote an article called Why You Should Move Away)

This entry was posted on December 17, 2007 and is filed under: Happiness, Life - 7 Comments »