Listen, you don’t hate Mondays, what you hate is the Routine. The whole Monday’s hate is all in your mind, so try to see things from a new perspective.
Today is Monday, one of many Mondays that already passed this year and only one of the many more waiting for you in the future.
For a lot of people, this day is something that they would rather avoid if possible. Many hold feelings of resentment for it and believe it to be the worst day of the week.
But is it though?
What makes Mondays different than any other day of the week?
The answer is simple.
Monday is a painful reminder to you of some of the routines in your life.
If you have a nine-to-five, Monday is when you start work again. Or as a student, you start with classes again, usually very early in the morning.
I mean it’s not like everyone enjoys waking up at 6 am or earlier, getting stuck in traffic, or commuting on a crowded bus if you don’t own a car, coupled with the sweats and having to deal with commercial bus conductors hauling insults at you for not having change.
Mondays aren’t as bad as we think, it represents a new start. Don’t make your week bad because of your disdain for Mondays.
So here’s a question, what can you do to make Mondays better for you?
1. Change your view of Friday: Mondays are bad for you because of how you view Fridays. For many people, Fridays are a lazy day. They wouldn’t want to get too involved with projects at work, given that it’s the start of the weekend hence they take a much longer lunch break and are eager to leave the office early to begin the weekend.
Now, when you get back to work on Monday, all the work you stylishly left unattended to on Friday, is all up in your face, looking at you like ‘oh welcome back madam/oga.’ Which is already making Mondays look harder than it needs to be.
Could your disdain for Monday have anything to do with how you view your Friday?
2. Don’t change your sleep routine: While much of our routine changes on the weekend, the one aspect of our weekly routine that should not change on the weekend is our sleep routine.
We see the weekend as an opportunity to sleep in. When we change our sleep routine from the week, our body struggles to adjust on Monday morning.
While we may enjoy the laziness of the weekend, the price is paid on Monday morning. In essence, it’s not the day we hate, it’s the choices we made over the weekend that make Monday so dreadful.
3. Re-train your brain: We have more power over our lives than we think. Like most things in life, the way we view Monday is a matter of choice.
Most people choose to despise Mondays. They convince themselves that Monday is a bad day. At any point, we can choose to find the reasons why Monday is a great day. It’s as simple as changing our minds.
Over time we’ve learned that when we expect something to be bad, it usually does. Your brain starts looking for the bad stuff so you can feel validated. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.
We have an obligation to ourselves to re-train our brain related to how we see Monday.
We know it’s not easy, there are times when you are just exhausted, and on a weekend you find yourself sleeping all through the day.
This isn’t a bad thing, however, what is bad is turning it into a routine, as it would be registered in your brain and all you can think of is how you can’t wait for Friday to come because you see Friday as a savior which would, in turn, affect your Monday.
As is the case with most things in life, it starts with awareness. It’s not about perfection. It’s about moving in the right direction and knowing the consequences of your choices.
So we implore you to do an honest assessment and ask yourself if you are doing some things to make your Monday worse than it needs to be
