What if I told you I could find a way to:
save you over $55,000
burn over 1,000,000 calories
and find time for you to listen to over 450 self-development books ?
Sound interesting?
Ever since I became a homeowner (back in 2002), I’ve cut my own grass. However, this year I’ve approached the weekly chore differently- dedicating the time to self-development.
I figured that in the past, I found myself day-dreaming while walking through the motion of cutting the grass and weed-eating.
Now, this one-time chore is an event I look forward to each week.
Here’s how you can do the same:
1. Start doing your own yard work
2. Approach the time as self-development time.
First, the benefits of just doing #1.
Money - Let’s say you started cutting your grass at age 32 and continued doing it until you reached the new retirement age of 67, you’d save over $55,125 if it takes you about an hour and a half to cut and trim your yard using a push mower and weed eater. If it takes you an hour, count on saving $36, 750. Just think of the money if you had compound interest added to these numbers.
Health – By cutting the yard with a push mower, you’d burn 364 calories per cut/trim on a small lot and 547 calories per cut/trim on a large lot according to the Lose It Application. Again, by the time you retire, you’d burn over 1,005,112 calories on a large lot or 445,900 on a small lot. READ THAT AGAIN. That adds up to 558 days of the daily recommended caloric intake, gone, over the course of this adventure on a large lot. That’s about 247 days, gone, on the small lot.
Ok, so that’s the financial and health benefit. Let’s look at the personal development benefit gained from implementing step #2.
Personal (Self) Development - By approaching this weekly chore with the intention of doing some sort of self-development exercise you really can make great use of this time. Try listening to an audiobook each week. If you listened to a self-help audiobook each week, by the time you retire, you will have listened to 306 books if you have a small lot and 459 books if you have a larger one. That’s a pretty significant accomplishment. If you are not big into listening to books – try focusing each week on a specific brainstorm (for example brainstorm things like new business ideas, solution to a particular problem you are trying to solve, or just mentally outlining how to approach a project). By doing this exercise while mowing the lawn, you will gain the equivalent of 30.5 work weeks on a small yard and about 46 weeks on a large yard.
Imagine the possibilities if you could find this much extra time —-well, I just showed you how. Take advantage of it. It’s a simple switch that many of you may just have to implement #2. Try it and let me know what you think.
Assumptions: Grass is cut 35 times per year. Cost of basic grass-cutting and trimming/weed-eating is $30 for a small lot or $45 for a larger lot. Small lot considered one where it takes 1 person, 1 hour to mow, trim, and weedeat using a basic push mower and weedeater. Large lot would take the same individual 1.5 hours to do the same amount of work. Daily caloric intake should be 1,800 calories per day. The average audiobook is 4 hours. Average work week equals the standard 40-hour work week.
