Do you ever wonder why you can’t seem to hit the ground running on a Monday morning like other people can? Do you spend your first day of your work week dragging yourself around? Motivation has to come from you. Not anyone else.
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Your mindset is the key component in whether or not your day will be a success. If you tell yourself all day that Mondays suck, your Monday is gonna suck. If you spend all weekend dreading Monday, Monday is going to be dreadful.
It amazes me how much our minds can control the outcome of our day. In his book “What to say When You Talk to Yourself” http://What to say When You Talk to Yourself Shad Helmstetter explains how we program our brain by the things we say to ourselves. He shows us how to program ourselves for success by talking to ourselves.
Get his book here, http://What to say When you talk to Yourself.
After reading his book it really got me thinking about the things that I say to myself and the negative effects it could be having on my day.
It’s Monday.
Have you ever paid attention to how much people blame a negative event on the day. “It’s Monday”. We are all guilty of this one. The problem is, instead of waking up with a mindset of, “This is gonna be a great day”, we roll out of bed grudgingly, muttering to ourselves that we hate Monday.
Starting our day with such a negative mindset is preparing us to look for the negatives in our day, rather than the positives. It’s simple. If we look for the negatives, we are going to see the negatives. When we look for the positives, we will see positive things.
So here’s a few tips for you to get your Monday started on the right foot.
It starts with Sunday.
Do you wake up on Monday with a plan?
We’ve all heard it, “Failing to plan is planning to fail”. Don’t be guilty of this. Start out your week with a plan. Sunday afternoons are a perfect time to plan out your week.
It may look like planning and prepping meals, getting out your calendar and writing down when you will have time to do some extra things, or maybe it’s scheduling events or meetings in. Whatever it is that you need to get done write it down and know what you have coming up.
The night before.
Go to bed with the house clean. Know what you will be having for breakfast. Have your lunch ready to go.
Get to bed on time. If you’re like me, you’ve stayed up a bit later over the weekend and slept in longer than you probably should. Give yourself some time to wind down, and then get to bed on time.
Monday is the first day of the work week. It’s gonna set your tone for the whole week, so don’t start out tired. Have things together so you aren’t running around frantically in the morning.
Monday morning.
Wake up early enough that you have time for yourself in the morning. Have time to drink your coffee or tea, whatever it is you do, without being rushed.
I typically give myself an hour. My husband and I love to drink our coffee together, read and pray together before starting our day. It doesn’t happen everyday, but it’s our aim to have that time together.
Begin with the right mindset.
So what is the right mindset for your dreaded Monday morning?
Well, dear. When I read my bible, I’m told over and over again to be thankful. An amazing thing happens when we are thankful. Like I mentioned before, our brains are programmed. They are programmed by the things we grew up hearing and by the things that we now continue to say to ourselves.
What science is just discovering, the Bible has been saying for hundreds of years. “…Be transformed by the renewing of your mind…” We can be transformed. If you think that you are just a negative person and always will be, you are wrong. Renew your mind sister, it’s really not as hard as you might think.
It starts with being thankful. In her book http://One Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskamp takes us on her journey to finding joy. The amazing thing is, she found joy in simply being thankful. It’s a remarkable story. I strongly encourage you to read it. You won’t regret it! (Or listen to it on Kindle http://One Thousand Gifts)
So what am I saying? I’m saying start your day with a positive mindset. The easiest way you are going to do that, is to get yourself a pretty journal or a simple notebook and write down just 5 things you are thankful for each day.
I’ve struggled with anxiety off and on. At my worst times, starting the day being thankful, made a tremendous difference.
A great Monday= a great week.
You may not be able to control everything that happens in your life, but you can control the way you respond to them. You can show up with a plan, and no matter what happens outside of your control, you can push through to your goal.
We may not be able to control everything in our lives, but lets not be guilty of not having a plan for the things that we CAN control. We can control our minds by having a thankful heart. We can plan our weeks to be successful by starting them with a plan, and we CAN have a great Monday.
Happy Monday!
KaitlynEileen 