Monday is a special day, even though it seems like a day like any other day. For some people Monday is a nightmare, often times literally on Sunday nights. Any social media channel, the radio, newspapers, and most conversations revolve around how hard it is to get out of bed on a Monday morning and that people can’t way for this day to be over – actually for the week to be over. Getting back to work seems to be one of the major problems in so many people’s lives, that they spend an immense amount of time and energy on complaining how hard life is and that they dream of a life that is just like Saturday and Sunday. Reading the funny posts and hearing the conversations makes you almost feel sorry for those poor people. Isn’t it a tragedy that they have such a hard time, such a hard life? If you ask them if they couldn’t change their job, they explain you in detail how complicated, in other words impossible, that would be. Hating Monday doesn’t really start when people start working but already in school. It is the worst day of the week because it takes away the weekend and their freedom, to do what they really love.
If you know someone who is constantly complaining about Monday, send them this or tell them what I am about to tell you, if you want them to be happier. I complained a lot about Monday when I was a little kid, going to school because I hated school. It was a nightmare for me because it absolutely felt like I couldn’t be who I really was. This changed when I started studying and doing something I love. But then I was surrounded by people who would complain about Monday and somehow it was a thing to do that. It was funny and eminent to talk about how much one would dislike Monday. I shared the posts, laughed about it and found it somehow funny until I realized something.
Do you know how many people wish they had more Mondays ahead? How many people wished they had just one more Monday at least? But they won’t get it. So many people won’t wake up the next Monday and they would give everything to experience another Monday.
How can anyone waking up on a Monday morning, knowing and understanding what you just read, have the audacity of complaining about Monday? This is how powerful it is to change perspectives.
The problem is, that this will make people simply feel guilty for not appreciating Monday, but it won’t solve the actual problem. The reason why they really don’t like Monday (or any weekday) and just wait for the weekend. It is their life. And again, this will bring up endless stories on why there is nothing they can change about it because they simply have to do, what they are doing. They don’t have a choice, life is not as simple as I might think, not for them. I had this kind of conversation hundreds of times. People can get very emotional and also offensive, whenever I tell them that they created this life, it was indeed their choice. Admitting that you are the reason for your own unhappiness, is not an easy pill to swallow. It takes a lot of courage and self-awareness. Because once admitted, there is no way around starting to change things. Should be good news, isn’t it? Being able to create the life they want, being happy, liking every day and not having to complain about how unfair life is anymore – that sounds amazing! Why don’t we all do it?
Good question. Because it takes time. It takes effort, consistency, a lot if self-awareness, self-reflection, inner strength, and it will inevitably mean a lot of change in people’s life. It is not easy. But you know what is unbelievably easy? Keeping things as they are. Suffering a bit and complaining about it. Arousing pity by everyone around them and letting things be just as they are. People live like this for decades, some never change anything and die, having lived a lived where they woke up every weekday, hating to go to work, being completely tired when coming home, and only living for the weekends and days off. It works. It sounds sad, but it works for many people, I’d argue for more most people in the industrial countries, where people have just enough to have the chance to focus on how hard life is, instead of really changing anything about it.
What if they would try to change their job? What if they would leave the relationship or marriage and start over? What if they would start a little side business in their free time? What if they would move to another city or country? What if they would take the chance to happy? Even if that would mean a couple of years struggling but decades of happiness and waking up excited for the day ahead? Isn’t that worth the struggle? Leaving the daily struggle of being miserable for the daily struggle of working on something that they are passionate about?
I don’t say that it is easy.
In fact, I know that it is not because I changed my life completely for chasing my dreams. And I was lucky enough to have so many easier choices. I could have done so many things that would had made more money, in a much shorter time and also status. I could have avoided fights with my family who wanted the best for me and couldn’t understand my decision. I could have gone the easy route, knowing I would be very successful because I had studied all of that. I thought about it. I really considered it. I can’t lie about the fact, that it is somehow very appealing. Yet, I decided to go the way I knew, would mean a lot of trouble. A path that could go wrong, frankly it was more likely to go wrong than right when you look at it from a logical perspective. But I knew, if this would work, I would be happy. I knew choosing the easier way would make me feel good for a couple of years maybe. But I could see very clearly how miserable I would end up. I would be one of the people getting a heart attack when thinking about Monday on Sunday night. I would run out of energy and the enthusiasm, no matter how much money or status I would have by then.
I have seen so many people who had it all. The things, the money, the status and they always aimed for something bigger, higher, faster – more. It was never enough. And they weren’t happy, they still aren’t. They had dreams just like we all do but they knew that going after them meant sparing things, they were not ready to live without.
I have also seen great musicians, creatives, people who loved what they did but in areas where it was hard to make a living. They took the job that was handy. The job that meant nothing to them because they needed the money, and who can blame them? I would do the same. But there were some, who never stopped working on their actual passion and some just love to have the job that brings home the money and working on their passion on the side. Others ended up making their side hustle, their real passion their main source of income. And there are the ones who took the handy job, wanted to work on their projects but got so involved in the other work and climbing the ladder, that they left their passion behind. They make more money, have a greater title but they don’t like Monday. They lost their passion and not just the passion for their work but for life.
We all have choices. Always.
If you don’t believe that, travel to countries like India or Africa and visit areas where people literally fight for their survival every single day. They don’t spend their time moaning how hard life is. They do. They live. Many of them live with a smile on their face, while working harder than we can even imagine. They find joy in the smallest things.
Or talk to people who are about to die. Ask them what they regret, or what they think about Monday, weekdays and weekends, now that they know, they will have only a limited amount of them. And by the way we ALL have just a limited amount of time. We don’t know how much.
Doesn’t it make Monday look like the greatest thing that can happen to us? Doesn’t that make the most miserable job look like a gift, when we know we woke up and got another day to live?
Monday is a great day. So are all the other days. Our life is good. The hard times, the obstacles, the times when we think there is no other option, those are the times where it just starts. This is when we decide whether we step into our power or if we give in.
When you can’t be grateful for anything else, be grateful that you are alive and remember even if it doesn’t seems like it, you have a chance, there is one, you just need to look closer.
I love Monday and every day.
I hope you do too.
And please, spread the message.
Let’s give Monday some love and let’s step into our own power to make every day a good day.