{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Work Week","description":"On this week's Keepin It Real, it's Friday and Cam's brain has had enough. He once wanted to keep going. Now, he's just hoping to make it to today.  ----- I can remember complaining that there simply weren\u2019t enough days in the week to get all the stuff I needed get done done. I wished that each day was longer and the work week had more days to it. I wanted a twelve-hour workday and a ten-day work week and a three-day break at the end. That would be preferred, I thought. That way I could get everything done and take a break when it was over. Wow, have times changed. Or maybe I\u2019ve changed. Maybe it\u2019s age or wisdom, but I don\u2019t feel the same way about work anymore. I usually charge out of bed on Monday morning with a to-do list that I made Sunday evening. I hit the list hard Monday and Tuesday, adding things to it along the way. By Wednesday I can feel my energy beginning to fade. I\u2019m watching dumb TV at night rather than reading. Thursday morning, I try to get a few simple things done because I know that lunch on Thursday about the last time, I\u2019ll be productive that week. Friday, I make a show of it. I leave the easy items on my to-do list for Friday so I can feel like I\u2019ve done something as I check them off and by lunch on Friday I\u2019m cooked. My brain is fried. I\u2019m tired. Nothing more will get done until my list making begins again on Sunday. At my gym, one of the trainers asked if I wanted to join her workout at 5:30pm on Fridays. It caught me off guard. I laughed a little and told her that by 5:30pm on Friday I\u2019m useless and beginning a workout at that time on a Friday was out of my world of possibilities. I\u2019m more likely to be having a beer with friends or in a ball on the couch, beaten to death by the work week. An organized workout is nowhere near being on my radar. The trainer is young. She looked confused. I didn\u2019t even try to explain. I\u2019m beginning to appreciate dentists hours more and more. My dentist begins reminding me of an upcoming appointment about six weeks out with a barrage of texts and an automated voice mail, nearly threatening me to not miss my appointment. The dentist also attaches emotions to their message, as if missing or having to reschedule will hurt their feelings. I feel ashamed and like I\u2019ve let them down if I have to reschedule. When I arrive, I see they pack their patients into the workweek so that they can take half a day off on Wednesday and a whole day off on Friday. His office is a spinning carousel of open mouths and teeth and the dentist is on the move from patient to patient. But call him after noon on Wednesday or on Friday and you\u2019ll get the answering machine. He\u2019s gone. So is his team. But my phone is still buzzing with automated messages telling me about my upcoming appointment and how they\u2019ll be heartbroken and maybe even cry a little if I can\u2019t make it. However, by the time Friday rolls around, I think my dentist and I are living the same dream. He\u2019s locked his office door, and I\u2019m shutting down my brain. He\u2019s earned his day off, and I\u2019ve earned the right to stare at nothing for a while. Maybe that\u2019s how grown-ups measure success \u2014 not by how much we get done, but by how guilt-free we can be when we finally stop trying. I\u2019m Cam Marston and I\u2019m just trying to keep it real. ","author_name":"Keepin' It Real with Cam Marston","author_url":"https:\/\/cammarston.com\/keepin-it-real-with-cam-marston\/","html":"