As we’ve talked with clients over the past few months, we’ve discovered a common thread. Everyone seems to be going through a process of evaluating their lives. Evaluation, by definition, is a noun, meaning the making of a judgment about the amount, number, or value of something; an assessment.
We are evaluating those things which make up our human reality here on earth, including the time and energy we put into our careers.
It might suffice to say that we have confronted ourselves. Some of the things we have discovered are charmingly comforting, and others are desperately distressing. Here’s just an overview of the things we’ve been closely examining:
- Our homes as we become more familiar than ever with its comforts, discomforts, unused and overused spaces, new spaces, hidden spaces, clean spaces, and dirty spaces
- Our families in brutal earnest; their strengths; weaknesses, personalities, likes and dislikes, quirks, and admirable traits.
- Our relationships with our families, our colleagues, our pets, our friends, our friends-who-we-thought-were-friends-before-CV-19, our neighbors, spouses, suppliers and clients
- Our health the good, the bad, and the ugly of our diets, exercise regimes, or lack thereof!?
- Our finances as we ask how much we need versus how much we buy? The impact on our end-of-the-month bottom line when purchasing less, driving less, socializing less, and going out less.
- As we discover how we tap into these areas or how we don’t, our mental and spiritual health is how we view these aspects of ourselves as part of ourselves as a whole or whether we reject these parts in totality.
As we’ve examined these things, we’re ultimately asking ourselves, ‘what makes us truly happy?’.
Our reality has resulted in most people thinking about the elements in Zig Ziglar’s wheel of life. In his book Born to Win, he illustrates the different spheres of life and use those to assist people towards an evaluation of, and ultimately an approach towards a life of balance (and goal setting).
There are eight spheres on the wheel of life, with Career being one. It has the obvious and direct impact on financial and intellectual aspects most would argue. However, I dare to say that I think the sphere of Career needs to be proportionately more significant than the rest of the spheres to lead to a happy life, in contrast to most seeking a balanced life.
I recently had the regretful privilege of speaking with someone who had lost a 14-year co-worker during the lockdown. Subsequently, he did a calculation and found that he spent more time interacting with and being in close proximity to this person at their workplace than what he did with this family over this period. This had a profound effect on my brain. I simply had to do the calculation for myself. Could most of our time on this earth be spent doing and being at work?
This is what I came up with in basic, broad terms and using some statistics I could find.
Disclaimer: I am NOT a statistician nor a mathematician, I am merely trying to evaluate and make a judgment about the amount, number, or value of something. I noted all the references below, for those interested in more detail.
Available Hours per annum available to us: 8 736 hours
Hours spent per year:
- Average hours @ work (very conservative on this one): 1900 hours
- Average hours commuting: 312 hours
- Recommended physical activity: 130 hours
- Average hours spent on social media: 728
- Average hours spent on TV: 728
- Average hours personal grooming: 364
- Average hours sleeping (7): 2 548 hours
- Average hours shopping per annum: 399
Consequently: Hours remaining for friends, family, and hobbies (that which should bring happiness)? A mere 1 627 hours…or 18%
When you do the math, it means that most of us will spend more hours at work than on anything else in any given year. We need to select our professions, the people we work with, and places of work very carefully. It magnifies the significance of truly and thoroughly ensuring that the companies we work for, align with our purpose and values.
Also, it reminds us that business owners, leaders, and co-workers create an environment that inspires, equips, and makes people happy! To be the person that lives a courageous, authentic life.
Do not miss out or ignore this moment given to you to tap into the collective evaluation and awareness of the world we find ourselves in, assessing the time given to us during one lifetime. Dare to find and create a place of happiness for yourself, your family, and your teams.
A life where we strive to give the term happy hours at work an added, perhaps more meaningful definition
Sources & Resources:
Hours worked
https://clockify.me/working-hours
https://data.oecd.org/emp/hours-worked.htm
Average sleep per country
https://english.cw.com.tw/article/article.action?id=2610
Commuting.: https://daliaresearch.com/blog/the-countries-with-the-longest-and-shortest-commutes/
Recommended physical activity per week:, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity
Average hours spent on social media: https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2019/01/how-much-time-do-people-spend-social-media-infographic.html
Average time spent watching television: https://www.statista.com/statistics/276748/average-daily-tv-viewing-time-per-person-in-selected-countries/
Interesting read on the average hours shopping: https://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/average-women-spend-399-hours-shopping-year-survey-finds-article-1.116819
https://www.becomingminimalist.com/shopping-statistics/