There are 24 hours in a Day

There are 24 hours in a Day

I have a lot of pet peeves. I'm simply an easily irritable individual. Something I suppose I have to work on. One of these pet peeves is when people quite frankly state that there are 24 hours in a day. A fact of which I am very well aware. I'm also cognizant of the fact that the sun rises in the East and sets in the West. 

Why does this simple statement make me roll my eyes? A day might be comprised of a 24 hour period but how many of those hours are realistically at our disposal? If we're lucky we sleep a sizable portion of those away. As a teenager I'm supposed to sleep for a little over nine hours each night. As you know, a good night's sleep is imperative to a variety of regular body functions including repair. On an average day I sleep for six and a half. What if I were to round up from there to seven hours? Well then there would only be seventeen hours left in the day. 

Say the day in question were part of the workweek. I'd be at school for a total of six hours. Subtract another hour and a half for the time it takes me to get ready, go to school, and come back. Nine and a half hours left. School also means homework and lots of it. Pencil in three hours for the amount of work I typically receive. Six hours left. Not including extracurricular activities, friends, and perhaps spending time with my dog.  I mean parents.  Now I could continue to bore you with the logistics of my routine but I'm afraid it would drive your cursor to the top right corner of your screen. 

The point of my above tangent is that the notion that there are 24 hours in a day drives the majority of us to put too much on our already towering plates. You can't complete your homework, study for two tests and attend your friend's birthday party all after school. As a blogger you may think that I'm supposed to harp about how you can do anything you set your mind to. This is one of the things you can't. Not because you aren't efficient or capable enough but because checking a dozen things off your to do list in one day isn't feasible. 

That's why I hate it when people say that there are 24 hours in a day. At the end of those 24 hours we look back on what we've done and feel dissatisfied. The idea that we have an abundant number of hours for miscellaneous usage has been drilled so heavily into our minds that when we don't win an award as the result of all our hard work we face discouragement. When your friends seem to be leaving you behind to eat their dust you wonder why you aren't accomplishing anything as well. You're all living the same 24 hour day are you not? That post-achievement depression can be a result of social pressures. If people are constantly articulating to you that there are '24 hours in a day' and that those are enough to meet and exceed your goals you'll eventually start asking yourself why you haven't. "Why am I not a famous movie star yet? Why haven't I traveled the world yet?"

So no I won't tell you that its possible for you to do anything and everything. At least not in one day. We often forget that we are human and that its okay for us to miss out on a few things before calling it a night. Remind yourself to focus on your achievements and the small victories of each day. One of the ways I do this is by keeping a gratitude journal. I jot down five things I'm thankful for at the end of each day. These can be as simple as "It finally stopped raining today and the sun came out". Bonus points if you can produce more than five. 

I remember visiting New York City with my family this summer. They placed me in charge of the itinerary. I wanted to see absolutely everything even though it wasn't our first time in the city. Nevertheless, the sheer number of possibilities to make executive decisions was more than enough to excite me. I'm still proud of how much I managed to cram on there. By the time my parents got hold of it our little trip looked more like a mad dash to get from venue to venue and attraction to attraction than a vacation. We ended up disregarding the itinerary I'd so carefully crafted and making things up as we went along. We had a lot more fun than I think we would've if we followed it. Even if we had spent our time there making a conscious effort to adhere to the schedule we wouldn't have been able to see everything. If we saw 'Phantom of the Opera' on Broadway we would've missed Shakespeare in the Park. One of the basic principles of life. You have to lose out on some things in order to focus on others. Its why people have bucket lists.

The takeaway? Cut yourself some slack and focus on what you have accomplished at the end of each day rather than what you haven't. It'll make it easier for you to fall asleep at night. There may be 24 hours in a day but we don't have all of them at our disposal and what you choose to do with them is up to you. If you want to spend four of them binge watching Netflix that's your decision. Don't let anyone's successes make you feel like you're a good for nothing. Especially not the one's you see advertised on their social media. We all know that isn't an accurate depiction of real life. I hope.