My Battle with Mondays

• • Stir your passions
    • What are you passionate about? What stirs your soul? Our passions, interests, and hobbies likely have some part to play in our mission and God-given purpose. 
    • If you are creative, Mondays (or anytime you are feeling down or stuck) is a great time to get those creative juices flowing. Write, paint, play an instrument, cook, whatever gets you excited about life. Granted you may have to put a time limit on it but spend an hour on your passions instead of that hour on social media and I bet your perspective about Monday and life, in general, will be totally different.

• • Encourage health
    • If we want to accomplish our mission, we have to be healthy. No time for sickness and fatigue. So do something that will positively affect your health on Mondays – exercise, eat a good breakfast, drink plenty of water. Each healthy choice will likely encourage another. 
    • Go outside if possible. Fresh air always brings a new perspective. And sun exposure increases some of the “feel good” chemicals in our brains. Obviously, use sunscreen when applicable, please. But even 5-10 minutes outside can change your mood and hold back the Monday funk.

Mine & Maintain Motivation

Inertia is hard to overcome, and motivation can be elusive. However, momentum is also difficult to stop. So what’s the answer? Basically, just get started. Today. Right now. No more procrastinating. As the old Nike commercial said, “Just do it!” Do something. Do anything to break the cycle, head down a new path, and move forward. 

We need to find, to unearth, to mine our motivation. And then keep it going.  

Our minds are usually the limiting factor (at least mine is). Rather than starting right now, we waste time on the what-ifs and if-only. What if I had followed thru on this last Monday, last week, last year.  If only I had more money, time, education… All pointless in this present moment and none helpful in fighting the Monday funk. 

If we can harness the potential of the present moment and stop looking backward, we can change our outlook and subsequently our outcome. If we can focus on the possibilities of the future rather than the failures of the past, we can make choices that positively affect the rest of this Monday, tomorrow and many Mondays to come. This is how we mine and maintain our motivation, one choice at a time. 

How to Mine & Maintain Motivation

• • Practice gratitude
    • At the beginning of the day or any time the funk is trying to creep in
    • Write down or speak out loud 3 (or 5 or 10) things you are grateful for in the present moment. Physically writing them out or vocalizing them aloud so you also hear it elicits a different response than just thinking them to yourself. 
    • There are so many benefits to gratitude – everything from improving your physical and mental health to improving your relationships. We should practice this at least daily and specifically if you feel stuck or have a case of the blahs, be it Monday or any other day. 

• • Find beauty
    • Get up in time to see the sunrise. The beautiful colors and splendor will awaken your soul to the possibilities of the day ahead. 
    • Buy yourself a bouquet of flowers. Sit them on your desk at work or if you are at home each time you look at them, smile and remember this is a marvelous Monday, filled with potential and possibilities. 

• • DO NOT try to accomplish the mundane on Monday
    • In case you didn’t get the point from above – Nothing sucks the wind out of my sails on Monday like the mundane.
    • My advice, if at all possible, don’t do tasks or chores that are mundane or demotivating for you on Monday. For me, that means no washing clothes or grocery shopping on Monday if at all possible.

• • A feasible to-do list
    • *FYI – My husband is shouting “Amen!” right now. He gets on me about this all the time. 
    • I’ve found the second thing that consistently sucks the joy out of my Monday (or any other day for that matter) is a vast, insurmountable list of things I need to do. Ending the day with a still full to-do list is detrimental to my motivation. 
    • A master to-do list and a daily to-do list is a good idea. On the master, you can brain-dump all the things that eventually need to get done. But on the daily to-do list, have only the top 3 or 5 things that must be accomplished today.
      • • Hint: Check your daily to-dos. Are they humanly possible and reasonable for your current situation? ( If your 3 tasks are painting all of downstairs, clean out 4 closets upstairs and power-wash the house… not humanly possible. I realize that’s extreme, but our (my) to-do lists are often almost as unrealistic in regards to the sheer amount of time things take.) 

• • Plan something to look forward to
    • Anticipation can keep us upbeat and motivated for the day and task ahead
      • • Plan a lunch date with a friend for Monday afternoon
        • Have dinner out with your husband/family on Monday.
    • Reward yourself. Positive reinforcement for completing a task or goal can keep us motivated.
      • • Make sure your goal or task is achievable and concrete (See feasible to-do list)
        • Have a sensible reward as well. For example, vegging out in front of the TV for 3 hours if you stay motivated for 2 hours kind of defeats the point. 

• • Accountability
    • Let someone know you are struggling with the Monday funk and ask if they would be willing to check in with you during the day on Monday or that evening to see how you did.
    • Having to recount our day with someone may be just enough motivation to get us over the hump when our minds start to lean to the negative, and our determination begins to fade.

What’s Next?

Do you want to be free of the unmotivated, mundane Monday trap? I know I do. 

God’s Word tells us to focus on what is lovely, noble, and excellent.  And the Monday funk is none of those.