Friday Night Takeaways — Valuing the Past 168 Hours of Our Lives

Before diving head first into the weekend, and running away from the week gone by as if you’re allergic to it — why not take a few minutes to look back, reflect and see what you learned and value from the past seven days?

Isn’t it strange how we put 168 hours of work, habits, thoughts, emotions, actions, words, experiences and effort into the week, and we usually want to escape them and forget them as soon as Saturday is on the horizon. What a waste!

Friday is now my takeaway day — a day to contemplate what I’ve learned over the past week and how I might use it for my own good in the future. Those 168 hours could have so much more potential if just given a little extra attention as they draw to a close.

Here’s what I will be asking myself every Friday from now on:

What went well? How can I celebrate or appreciate?

Acknowledging achievements is so important to give meaning to our life, and keep us motivated and resilient.What’s the point in accomplishing something, if we don’t take time to recognise and enjoy it, before moving on to the next thing? Balance is everything — make the effort, and enjoy the reward.

What could I improve?

Rather than beat myself up for things that didn’t go so well, why not turn those lemons into lemonade, and make them valuable motivation for the future, instead of considering them failures in the past? Reframing negative events as opportunities for improvement creates a completely different energy to operate from.

What lessons did I learn?

These could be lessons from things that didn’t go so well, as above. Or maybe they’re breakthroughs, realisations, or simply some new information that deserves reinforcement and more contemplation. The fact is we will always learn something new over seven days.

Don’t your past 168 hours deserve an extra few minutes of attention and reflection too?

What if you could maximise the potential of that time just gone by, by making it a catalyst for a better next week, next month or next year — or at the very least, appreciating it for what it was?

They’re 168 hours that we’ll never get back, but they could continue to give to us, if we give them the chance.

Share your Friday takeaways below.

Originally published at https://www.siobhangallagher.co on July 17, 2021.