Have you ever had a case of the Mondays? Well, this ought to cheer you up.
I have owned two motorcycles in my life, Roxanne and Sable. I name them because I am just the type of person that names vehicles.
Roxanne was my first motorcycle and she taught me a lot. She taught me about buying motorcycles and caring for motorcycles. She taught me how to ride. But most importantly she taught me the joy of pushing motorcycles up hill.
Every time I would ride, she would break down at the bottom of the biggest hill in town. I lived on the other side of that hill and there was no way around, only up and over. That is when I decided that I needed to get a new motorcycle, and that was Sable.
But I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t gone through my experiences with Roxanne. She taught me how to take turns and to tighten the straps of my backpack when I ride. She taught me to never park at the bottom of a hill, and to this day that has saved me many times. Even today as I write this, I accidentally killed the battery on her and was able to push start her because I had parked at the top of a hill.
Mondays are a lot like motorcycles. Mondays can be really enjoyable when they get started the way you want them to, and they can be miserable when you have to fight uphill the entire day to get where you want to be.
Monday is the gateway into a productive week. You cannot get to a productive week without going through Monday. I’m not even talking about the actual day on the calendar, I mean that whatever the first day of your week may be, it is a Monday. Monday is more than 1/7th of the calendar, it is the first day of the week that you are going to make new things.
This is the reason that I don’t allow myself to have bad Mondays. No, no, no. It isn’t that bad things cannot happen to me on Monday because bad things can and do happen every day. Having a good Monday is a choice that you make when you wake up on Monday.
The stories that you tell yourself color in the way that you see events in the past and future. Your Monday is like the page of a coloring book, the story that you tell yourself about what is going to happen for the rest of the day fills in the outlines of the events that take place.
Your stories are self-fulfilling prophecies. You are going to make your Monday into the kind of Monday that you believe you are going to have. You cannot control your Monday, per se, but you can control how you see your Monday. The key to having a good Monday is contentment. When your contentment is based on doing your best then you are able to control how content you are going to be with your Monday.
The Weekly Bucket
Imagine that your week is a bucket. Each day you pour the smaller bucket of your daily experience into that weekly bucket. When Monday ends, all that is in your weekly bucket is your Monday experience. The condition of your Week after a Good Monday is great, and if you have a terrible Tuesday then at worst you are batting .500. If your week starts with a bad Monday then you can only achieve a .500 at best.
When you think of your week in this lens you begin to see the importance of making your Monday a good one. This is what sets the tone of your week. Gain control of your Monday and make it a good one by setting your contentment in doing your best. By doing this, you’re giving your week a fighting chance.
Setting up your Monday
So we have established that the only thing you can truly control about Monday is the outlook that you are going to have about Monday. You cannot control the events of the day, but you can control how you are going to look at the events of your Monday. I’ve also covered how you can find contentment in your Monday, all that is left is to talk about how to make sure that you find that contentment.
Well, just as I always park my motorcycle at the top of a hill incase things don’t go to plan, you should plan your Mondays to be the same. Give yourself a way each Monday to get a running start in case you need one. That is the only way to guarantee that things start out how you want.
Give yourself a list of things that you want to accomplish in order to consider the day a success. Sean McCabe from seanwes suggests making a post-it note. Other people use reminders on their phone, and others have lists that are always the same. You get to determine what will make you content.
What makes you content should be something that depends only on you. If your contentment objectives are based on other people, the weather, the stock market, or something outside of your control then you don’t have control over your contentment.
One of my contentment objectives during the 20-in-20 challenge that I am working on is making sure that there is a blogcast going out each day. I am the only one in control of when they are going out because I am the one writing them. I am not basing my contentment on the downloads, views, shares, or likes that come from them because I am not in control of that.
Use your weekend to set up your Monday. This means that you are resting on the weekend so that you are prepared for the running start you may need to get your Monday going.
You are never going to have enough time on Monday to plan for your contentment, so it is important that you are intentional about doing whatever it takes to be ready when the day comes.
A well set-up Monday can make your week to be a success. When you have your Monday planned then you are able to execute. Do not leave your Monday up to acting on the fly. Yes, sometimes winging things works, but you want Mondays that are sustainable.
So, get your story straight about your Monday, find what it is going to take to make you content and make sure you can control it, and give yourself a chance for a running start in-case you need one. This is the secret to harnessing your Monday.
I'll say it again
Mondays can be really enjoyable when they get started the way you want them to, and they can be miserable when you have to fight uphill the entire day to get where you want to be. Monday is the gateway into a productive week. Having a good Monday is a choice that you make when you wake up on Monday.
Your Monday is like the page of a coloring book, the story that you tell yourself about what is going to happen for the rest of the day fills in the outlines of the events that take place. You cannot control your Monday, per se, but you can control how you see your Monday.
Gain control of your Monday and make it a good one by setting your contentment in doing your best. Give yourself a way each Monday to get a running start in case you need one.
You get to determine what will make you content. What makes you content should be something that depends only on you. Use your weekend to set up your Monday. You are never going to have enough time on Monday to plan for your contentment, so it is important that you are intentional about doing whatever it takes to be ready when the day comes.
Bubble Bath Questions:
What are you doing to set yourself up for success on Monday?
What would it look like for you to be content?
How can you change your contentment to be things in your control?
