I want to share a mindless moment with you. 

Last week, I was chatting with someone and I said "Happy Friday". Thankfully, my interlocutor had the presence of mind and curiosity to ask, "Do you really still think in terms of the weekend, given what you do?"

I don't. In fact, a big part of my work is helping people move through and beyond "living for the weekend". Yet there I was, reinforcing the basic idea of living for the weekend. Pretty embarrassing.

The 40 hour work week and the weekend were big steps forward for us—in the Industrial Age. They are 2 ideas that stickily persist, even though we've been in our post-Industrial Digital Age for some time now. 

Why?

1. They're hangovers from our 12+ years in our education system, which was designed to churn out obedient, punctual factory-workers (remember how much you looked forward to Friday in grade school?)

2. They're spread far and wide via our language and media.

As for the first piece, education is going to take a while to flip and update. You know this: Big systems take massive amounts of time, emotional drive, effort, and political will to change. It'd be awesome if you play whatever part you can, whenever you can, to improve education. 

The second piece, though? You and I both have 100% power over the things we say and media we choose to take in. 

Let's all stop with this "Happy Friday" thing. While we're at it, take out "Hump Day" too.

Let's stop thinking freedom starts on a certain day of the week. Every day, you're free to consider whether the work you're doing matters. You're free to consider whether you're operating at or near your highest ability.