Who hasn’t experienced that knot in the pit of the stomach preparing to return to work, and/or school, on a Monday, after a nice relaxing weekend with family and friends? This feeling is often worse after vacation as we consider the work that has piled-up in our absence and the challenges waiting to be addressed upon our re-entry.
I recall, as a young lad, this knot arriving early Sunday evening, just after dinner, in anticipation of school the following day. A temporary escape from this feeling occurred (for me at least) when my 2 brothers and I would lie on the living room floor, chins resting in the palms of our hands, watching The Wonderful World of Disney. Oh, how we wanted to be part of those exciting stories of adventures to far-away lands.
As adults (young or old) these feelings of anxiety (even foreboding) can still happen as we consider an overbearing teacher, boss or customer, heavy workloads and the cares of our personal lives.
One of my sons was recently sharing his “Monday Morning Funk”, which inspired this post…
The first thing to realize is: we are NOT alone. That is, EVERYONE has, or has had, these feelings at some point in their lives. And, we often realize that once we get going for the day it isn’t so bad after-all.
Part of the challenge is that we can be our own worst critic, a topic we’ll cover in a separate post.
So, how do we beat down the Monday Morning Funk? I’d suggest there are 4 steps:
- Define our dreams – Where do we see ourselves in 5-10 years? The adventures we’d like to experience, the places we’d like to live, the vehicles we’d like to own, the causes we’d like to support, the relationships we’d like to have, the job we’d like to hold, the business we’d like to launch, etc.
- Define our goals – What are the incremental steps we must take and the milestones we must achieve to realize our dreams? The college degree(s) we must achieve, the real-life work experiences we must get under our belt, the amount of money we must earn and save, the training/seminars we must attend, the books we must read and finally, how to perform our current duties in such an outstanding way that we absolutely blow away our boss, co-workers and customers with regards to how personable, effective and industrious we are, and the personal initiative we take (without being asked).
- Act – Work tirelessly towards our goals!
- Remember…
Back to Monday morning…As we are preparing to return to school and/or work for the week, we must pull up our list of dreams and goals to remind ourselves why we are doing what we are doing, what we need to do to get there and to get to work!
Said another way, we need to look up and not down. If we don’t look up (to our goals and dreams) we end up focusing on the “drudgery” of the day considering it to be the “end-state” as we ask ourselves “Is this all there is to life?” No, no, no!
This (today’s list of tasks and appointments) is absolutely NOT the end-state. Today is simply a minor stepping stone down the path towards our goals and dreams.
Consider this – There really is VERY LITTLE COMPETITION for those who are willing and able to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps to become exceptionally productive every single day. The reason: much of society seems to “stall out” going about the daily grind, doing only what is absolutely required to get by, punching the clock, with no long-term vision as they consider the whole thing (life experience) to be too hard. Reminds me of a quote:
Don’t be upset with the results you didn’t get with the work you didn’t do.
To keep up the energy level and focus we MUST hold our long term objectives (goals and dreams) in the forefront of our mind. Every single day!
In closing, the launching of this post on a Sunday morning is by design, to provide readers an opportunity to eliminate, or at least reduce, this and future week’s Monday Morning Funk.
By taking the 4 steps above you will move rapidly down the path towards achieving your goals and dreams. Simply be patient. Give it time and you WILL, you MUST get there!
All the best!
p.s. – There is a commonly known statistic indicating that the number one day of the week for heart attacks to occur is Monday. This might suggest that by beating down the Monday Morning Funk we are going to live longer 🙂
All the more reason to Dream Big, Set Goals and Take Action!
Be Brave Not Safe 
Great thoughts, Craig!