Offices across the Western world are familiar with the hum and buzz of Friday. In the East, perhaps it is Wednesday or Thursday, but the sentiment is very much the same.

We don’t really question this. Naturally, it makes perfect sense to have the Monday blues and the Friday ya-hoo! Right?

What is wrong with this picture?

I remember intently observing my dad as a child. At the start of every week, he would get up with a bounce in his step and smile through his morning rituals. He would come back late at night with a sparkle in his eyes, even on days when he had less-than-pleasant stories to share. At the end of the week, he would come back home with a skip: “SO! What’s the plan?” He seemed to live each day with the same level of energetic intention.

This quickly became my expectation of a day at work. It was so expected, in fact, that I picked up on the change immediately when it happened.

I only have memories of two distinct jobs my dad held in his life when he wasn’t very fulfilled. It was only during these times that I heard the words: “Two more days till the weekend!”

He ran like hell from these jobs, moving countries in a snap when he found himself waiting for a few too many weekends. There was always someone around the corner who saw the magic in him. I’ve learned that it takes particularly uninspired people not to.

These observations shaped a very deeply held value in me. While people around me disagree and state that “everybody waits for Friday because nobody loves their job as much as the weekend,” I am inclined to disagree. Some people love their work as much as their leisure. I have witnessed it. I recognize a great and troubling problem when I see others resign to the claim that work can never be fun.

What we think, we become.

Think of your world as a train station. Trains come and go all day. Each one takes you to a different destination. You know, in your heart, which destination is meant for you. When you see that train approaching, what do you do? Do you jump right on, or do you stand still on the platform, unsure of venturing into the unknown? You know the platform well. It’s home base. But then the train is gone, and you realize you only had a split second to make a decision. You missed it. Now you are one of the herd… who wait for Fridays.

Fix it.

There are other trains coming. Open your eyes and look.

Don’t tell me that waiting for Fridays with everyone else is just the way life is. If the wait doesn’t strategically lead you to an intentional end goal, it isn’t worth it.

In the words of Robert Frost:

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”

And remember… we design our own luck!

M.