Take a moment to answer the following questions. What do you spend the most time doing? What activity takes up the majority of your day, your week, your month (or even your year — in case you started to sing the “Friends” theme song to yourself)?

Despite what you may have seen on TV sitcoms, for most of us it’s not hanging out with friends in a coffee shop — it’s working! Now consider this: If you work a 40-hour week with four weeks of vacation per year, over the course of 40 years you will have worked a total of 76,800 hours. That equates to approximately 33% of your waking hours over that 40 years. Keep in mind, these numbers are conservative because not everyone works just 40 hours a week. Many of us don’t get four weeks of vacation. Many don’t retire after 40 years.

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