Your Monday is so important!! How you handle the start – can actually transform your entire life! How you choose to max out the first of your literal week gives you the drive, momentum, and purpose of where you’ll get to and where you want to go. It creates the higher performing life that so many of us strive for.
So often we as humans (and particularly Americans) choose to look at Monday as a drag. We look at the start of work, lists, schedules, school, homework, laundry and everything else as exhausting, grueling, and just something we have to get through. Many of us need piles of coffee and a hot shower just to get rolling and to make it to next weekend.
I’m here to tell you today that you do not have to live that way. How do you make it seem like a weekend every day? To create passion for the grueling start to your week from the very beginning seems impossible. How do you make Monday’s Look like Friday afternoon?!
When you can look at life as discovering your best you will learn how to physically, mentally, emotionally, and creatively think past the exhaustion of Monday.
Monday is the start of a fresh new perspective, a fresh new week. The opportunity for growth, for expansion, for changing what you did wrong yesterday, last week, and even last month. It is the chance to be something better than you were even from last night. You can recover you’re happy, thriving, self out of your never-ending demands, career pressures, and stresses of every day life.
Number One: You must start on Sunday. Every person that has a go-getter mentality and a high performance process starts off by making their week start the night before. They lay out their outfits, they create their goals, they prepare the coffee, or write their mantra one more time or their life goals.
Your goals are what you want to do, your lists are what you feel you should do. Focus on your wants and dreams and your Monday doesn’t become Monday. It becomes monumental.
Number Two: Start by setting boundaries and embracing rest. In the chaos of the schedule, we can lose sight of the importance of breathing room. On our very first day if we max out to the point of burn out the rest of the week is toasted. Each Monday I select one thing that I want to do for that day and then for that week. Making lunches, getting the kids off, Menu planning, laundry started, calls made. It can be wonderful to check off all of these things on your list but it can also be daunting when you have nothing else to look forward to. Many of us look towards the weekends because it’s the joy of the things that we want to do versus what we “have” to do. On Monday what do you want to do? You have your chores, you have your list, you have your work but, you can also create space for the little things that create passion and zeal for the rest of your life.
Number Three: Do not give yourself to monster list. I use to think maxing out your Mondays meant over scheduling yourself to the point of just being bone tired and exhausted by the day’s end. What I have come to find out is when you do that you have no energy or any reserve left for Tuesday. When you create your list I want you to think of the top five to 10 (max 12) things for your day and one of them should be you’re want. Getting too far past the top 10 things and you hit a negative reserve. It backfires, and becomes counterintuitive. Maxing out credit cards, and even weightlifting, there is a point when it becomes dangerous. Learning where your max is and rest is key in order to keep growing. To max out Mondays correctly you need to give yourself a break. Every single client – if they go past the 12 tops things on Monday, by Friday it doesn’t work. I’m talking about real legitimate goal, big ideas and big tasks on your list. Just don’t go past 10.
Number Five: Exercise. Do not give yourself excuses – do not go without this rule. Monday means exercise. I cannot state this enough.
Number Six: Utilize your commute time. Find the Podcasts, the books, the music that you want to listen to, and read. Make this inspirational and creative time. It’s the motivation that these tasks give that further your resolutions and goals. Try and make this time for feeding your bigger picture and for encouragement. Read books and listen to the things that inspire.
Number Seven: Do something for someone else. When you think of others you are thinking bigger. You are choosing to bring joy to more than your own personal bubble. You are creating ripple effects that Only God himself can see, when you give forward. The reward is far greater than I can even explain or fully understand. It is a beautiful masterpiece that God has created. When we become apart of others stories, we expand our very own and in doing so in large our hearts.
“It is not enough to be busy… The question is: what are we busy about?” ~ Henry David Thoreau
Kate”s Monday list:
- Do one thing I want to
- Listen to a podcast
- Workout
- Do not go over 12 items on my “to do”
- Start on Sunday
- Do something for someone else
Creating Exceptional 