Page 54 - Benjamin Franklin\'s The Way to Wealth: A 52 brilliant ideas interpretation - PDFDrive.com

get out more. That doesn’t mean pubbing and clubbing all the time (not
quite, anyway), it means outdoor sports, meeting up with friends to try new
hobbies, lots of short breaks away from home and plenty of travel. That
doesn’t mean I can’t relax at home; far from it. I have sacred relaxation
rituals (‘hammock time’) but these are special moments set aside. What I
try not to do is lose time to the TV or the sofa. That doesn’t mean I don’t
watch TV or slouch happily with a book; it’s just that I try to choose what
to watch or when to chill. I almost never switch off at the end of the night
with the vaguely unsettling feeling that I’ve just been suckered into
watching three hours of junk the way you might walk away from an all-
you-can-eat buffet wondering why you did it. However, I’ll admit that I
only got to this stage after years of losing my life to wasted moments.

Benjamin F. spotted a long way back that the only real way to relax from
work is not to do nothing, but to go out and do something completely
different. Dynamic downtime is more satisfying, refreshing, rich and, above
all, easier to share.

HERE’S AN IDEA FOR YOU…
Take the plunge. Grab a listings magazine, check online—however you
find it, pick something you’ve never done before and do it this
weekend. It doesn’t have to be hang-gliding; how about a foreign
language class or a guerrilla-gardening outing? See how refreshing it
can be to do something fresh.