Beat The Monday Blues

Do you start thinking about work on Sundays and fretting?

Do you drag yourself to work on Monday mornings?

“Good Thursday morning! Just one more day to Friday!”, the radio DJ counts down to the weekend for his morning listeners. Many of them are likely to be thinking all week about hitting the bike trail, heading for the beach, or teeing off on the green. We all look forward to the weekends, but when Sunday evening comes…stress sets in and we begin feeling the uncomfortable. If you do not suffer from it – good for you – it’s a “down syndrome” of another kind, more commonly called “Monday Blues”. Yet somehow, grey clouds and the down feeling start brewing on Sunday evenings.

It could be the long hours every night, or a demanding boss we have to put up with, or back-biting colleagues who are not team players. It could also be the low pay, or the mundane job routine. No wonder you hate the thought of getting up to work. And it’s worse on Mondays – you somehow get up on the wrong side of the bed more often on Mondays than any other day in the week.

Change is Good

If you are one of those who have these weekly experiences, you are not alone. Question is, do you want to start your week this way? Isn’t it time to change your routine? No, not next month, not next week, but this very weekend. You owe it to yourself to enjoy your work.

Stop crying the blues when your alarm rings on Monday mornings. And we have heard and read enough about downturns - it's time to turn the table on negativity. When you start counting your blessings, you now have more reason to look forward to a great work-week. So how should you add color to your Mondays?

For starters, have a positive mental attitude. Recognize that your mental attitude is the only thing which you – and only you – have complete control. Exercise that control, and direct it. Occupy your mind with doing what you want to do so that no time will be left for it to stray to the things you do not want to do.

"Whatever you consistently think about and focus upon, you move towards."

~ Anthony Robbins

Next, count your blessings. We often hear our colleagues on Monday mornings complain about the weekend ending too soon. A decade ago, many of us have to work on Saturdays. Today, most employers offer 5-day work weeks in the hope of seeing more happy and productive employees, but guessed what? You are right! It’s still not enough…it’s just never enough.

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." ~ Churchill

True, not every one of us is fortunate to have a job we just love, who have colleagues who are truly nice and a boss who is so understanding. If you have a good job and still dread it, read the papers about the many who were retrenched this past year. Read about the fresh graduates who are still without a job after 5 months scouring the job market. Start appreciating what you do have. Worry does not change the situation, action does. It helps to share your plight with your spouse or friend. Dr Richard Carlson authored a best-seller, “Don’t sweat the small stuff…it’s all small stuff”. In a word, problems seem bigger than they really are when we give them too much attention. If you need to change your work environment, take that bold step, even if it means a pay-cut. It’s just not worth the extra few dollars if having it means less sleep and more frequent visits to the physician.

Motivated to Work

It’s safe to assume that we feel the best when we feel committed to the task, right? You believe in what you are doing. You believe you are doing something good for somebody as well as for yourself. So, besides money, these are likely the reasons you look forward to go to work:

• You want a chance to do commendable work
• You want to make a valuable contribution
• You want to prove you have what it takes.
• You want to master new skills.

"Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement, and its lack is the stumbling block for ninety-eight out of every hundred people simply because they never really define their goals and start toward them." ~ Napoleon Hill

Everyone has a vision of themselves and their future. It is when that vision is limited that they too, are limited in their growth. What distinguishes a successful person and an unsuccessful one is a motivating dream. Successful people look beyond themselves; they move forward with faith and not fear. The late American President Robert F. Kennedy is one such person who said, "Some people look at things as they are and say, why? I look at things as they could be and say, why not?"

So, set goals for the week ahead, and when you do, you actually begin to look forward to achieving them – a sense of fulfilment is your just reward. 

Charged Up On Sundays

One definition of motivation is “an inner drive, impulse, or intention that causes a person to act in a certain way or to achieve a certain goal.” You want to see motivation? Listen to your colleagues and staff talk about their children at school, or those die-hard football fans raving about the English Premier League matches. You’ll hardly find an unmotivated worker after office hours, and on Friday evenings.

Motivation comes from inside you. You simply have to draw it out. Better still, spread it around, it’s contagious but others would be happy to catch it. Here are simple suggestions to prepare to face your Mondays:

By all means, rejuvenate through some form of recreation or engage in a sport or exercise during your weekend, but DO NOT get yourself too physically stretched that you call in sick the next day to rest your weary body.

This Sunday night, try doing this to prep yourself:

Write down a list of things you need to do this week – make sure they are achievable and realistic goals. Set your alarm 15 minutes earlier than usual. Read a book or watch a sit-com on TV before you turn in. Listen to soothing music.

Turn in early. When you awake, look into the mirror, SMILE, and say, "You're going to have a wonderful day! With a tinge of positive attitude and a dose of mental preparedness, you can your face your work-week with good cheer. Try it! 

Let's look forward to colorful Mondays, not just blue!