Motivation Monday

The dreaded day.... Monday....sigh! Why do people dread Mondays so much? Here is an article I found recently that has a little insight into why we don't look forward to Monday.

https://www.inc.com/nicolas-cole/8-very-real-reasons-people-hate-mondays-and-why-you-should-be-concerned-if-you-f.html

Here are the main reasons and my commentary below!

1. You got a full night's sleep and yet you still feel tired. This is a very clear indicator that sleep is not the problem. The problem is you're not emotionally invested in what you're doing. Have you ever gone on a vacation or a trip where you're doing stuff all day, going to bed late, and still waking up early with tons of energy because you're excited to do more exploring? That's how you should feel every day, in some way, shape, or form. Do you love what you do? I think this is one of the main reasons that people do not get excited about Mondays. It means heading back to work for most. When you have a job that you don't love to do, it makes it so much harder. Now, I am not saying that you have to love working- who wouldn't rather be at home, somehow collecting a paycheck and not doing much for it? That is just not the way things work for most. We have to work to earn a living. I would suggest really looking at your job. Is it something you like to do? do you like the people you work with? Look at your commute, your workload and commitment. If the job is truly why you dread work days, try looking into something new to do, something you can feel good about doing and be at least a little passionate about. Change is hard, but sometimes change is necessary. 

2. You did not prepare yesterday for today. People despise feeling overwhelmed, and yet so many fail to realize they do it to themselves. Failure to prepare means you are preparing to fail. Mondays are only overwhelming if you did not take Sunday to get all your ducks in a row. And the reason why most people choose not to do this is because whatever it is they're doing isn't enjoyable to them. Routine! Routine! Routine! I have posted about this before. Make your life easier. Get organized and have a routine in place. We do all kinds of things to make life easier for us: Amazon Prime, Clicklist, certain days to get laundry done, cleaning schedule, iron clothes for the week. Prepare yourself for the week and it takes so much of the stress off.

Here is my post on this:

https://msenseneysjourney.blogspot.com/2019/02/lets-talk-routine.html

3. Everyone else hates Mondays too. It's easy to hate things other people hate too. "Misery loves company." It's impossible (or very, very difficult) to stay positive when your company culture is, "Hey Bob, how was your weekend?" / "Too short. Can't believe it's Monday. I hate Mondays." Next time someone asks about your weekend, try to think of something great that happened and share that versus saying "too short". Be positive and maybe others will follow! 

4. You aren't doing something you love. Obviously. You are not going to wake up feeling excited to go to a job you don't genuinely enjoy. It's astounding how many people choose things out of comfort, or fear of the unknown, and bite the bullet on years upon years of dissatisfaction. See #1! So true!

5. Social media either hates Mondays or crushes Mondays. Browse through Instagram on a Monday morning and you'll see half a dozen coffee cup quote graphics either sharing the pains of waking up on a Monday, or the relentless ambition one must possess in order to crush Mondays goals. What's more important is, what do YOU want? How do YOU want to be spending your Monday? And then what can you do in order to bring that to fruition? This is so dang true. I bet people post more about Monday and working that any other day (except maybe Friday!). Try to put a positive post out there in the world on Monday and give someone something good to focus on! 

6. You don't enjoy the people you work with. Most of the time, it's the people around you that define how long you stay in any given situation. Regardless of how you feel about the work, it can be very difficult to take satisfaction in doing something with people who don't bring you positive energy--and vice versa. See #1 again. I love my co-workers and the ones that don't bring that positive vibe, I try to be extra positive around them or avoid them if I can. Sad, but sometimes you just can't surround yourself with that if you are going to stay in the mindset to make Mondays better, make work better, be more positive!

7. Mondays mark the end of one life and the beginning  of the next. When you "live for the weekend," a Monday is the door shutting on your 48 hours of freedom--and that's a pretty strong indicator you are living double lives. One life is how you "pay the bills," and the other life is what you do for personal enjoyment. In some capacity, you want to find a way to merge the two. Otherwise, you will never find your work all that fulfilling. I am not going to lie, I LOVE the weekends. I always say I work to live, not live to work. I think it is super important to have priorities in life. I also think it is important to find that balance as well. People always want to separate work and life. Honestly, that's almost impossible. There will be times you have to take care of personal stuff while working or work while at home on your weekend time. Try to find joy, no matter what you are doing.

8. Because Monday means doing it "all over again." This speaks directly to our culture of chasing rewards as "means to an end." If you see every week as a sprint, and you endure it with the hopes that one day you'll be "done" and you can finally "enjoy it and relax," you're doing it wrong. You're missing the entire journey. You are aiming for something that doesn't actually exist. Fulfillment is found along the way, not in a treasure chest at the end of the rainbow. Every single day is a gift. God did not intend for us to view the days as something to "get done". Stop looking at it that way and try to enjoy the moments, days, weeks you are given. I would say also try to aim for productivity and relaxation in the same day. When you balance things out a little more and have time each day where you do something productive and then also have some relaxing time, you are likely not to view certain days as better than others. 

A journey to FAITH

I have been working on this post for a little while. I wasn't quite sure how to put my feelings and thoughts into words. As I discuss on my blog, I am a Christian wife and mom. God first! It hasn't always been that way for me though. Here is a little about my journey to where I am today. 

I grew up Catholic. My grandmother started taking me to church when I was a newborn and I continued to go to church with her most every Sunday. I went through all the steps as a Catholic child- baptism, first communion, and confirmation. When I entered high school and got a job, the time I spent at church was less and less. I guess you could say I was like any other teenager and had "more important things to do". 

On and off through my teenage years and early 20s, I would go to church occasionally or start going for several weeks and then stop. When a major hurricane hit my hometown in 2008, things really changed. The diocese decided to tear down the church that I grew up in, despite the efforts of many to keep it open and repair it as a community. There were other things that occurred, but all in all- it completely turned my off to the Catholic faith. I haven't been back in a Catholic church since.

 I have tried non-denominational churches, spent some time at a Church of Christ, did some online church services, and much more. I have read through the Bible several times. I have kept my connection to God alive through it all. But I strayed..... I let the devil come in and get inside my head and thoughts. I wasn't sure what the plan for my life was. I let other things become more important. I always prayed and felt I had a connection with God, but it wasn't always deep and as solid as I feel it is today.

 Lots of things changed when I met my husband. I truly felt God picked him out just for me. All the years of doubting and feeling hopeless were gone when I met him. I think that was a turning point in my faith. At that moment, I knew God was there, he had always been there, and would always be there. I ventured back to church services, online and eventually we have found a church home at our local Methodist church. 

My faith is stronger now than ever. I chose to wake up every day and trust in God. I know the world is not perfect and I don't see how it will ever be. I just chose to believe that in the end, all will be ok and if it's not ok, it's not the end. I chose to wake up every day and look for the good and positive in the world. I am not naive by any means and I know the devil attacks constantly. I have just tried to train my brain to lean on faith, to pray, to devote time to God daily, and to believe that He is greater than anything here on this Earth. Many people out there might call that silly in the world we live in today. I know it's a risk, but I would rather risk everything on God than live for the material world and believe that is as good as it gets. There is better. Heaven is there and I can't wait to see it one day. Faith is a tricky thing. I am not always perfect with it, but I sure try. 

How did you journey to faith? Are you a believer? I would love to hear about it.