Like many other people, I used to reach Sunday evening and feel my heart sink with the sun as I lamented the irreversible slide into Monday, waiting there on the other side of nightfall to drag me back down into “the system”. You know, that thing whereby you sacrifice 5 days in a row to help make a bunch of people you don’t know
richer and deal with their problems, and are compensated for the time and effort in monetary form. But now?
…I love Monday because it’s the beginning of the working week. I feel that Monday has been given a bad rap, thanks to people who don’t like their job, that Boomtown Rats song and ‘Garfield’. But think about it like this: if we’re running our own business, if we’re building something we’re passionate about and we’re in the drivers’ seat, then Monday is the very first day of the week we get to go at it again! It presents to us a fresh week full of opportunity after a well-deserved rest. When I first began to keep a Weekly Planner, I experimented with other days- Wednesday nights (treating it like a mid-week evaluation), Friday mornings (a jab of mental adrenalin before I got stuck into the weekend), even Sunday evenings (figuring I’d get a days’ head-start over the Monday-haters!) But putting together my Weekly Planner on all of these days felt…disjointed. Best way I can describe it.
Monday, however, is the start of the working week. My working week. I’ve (usually) enjoyed the rest and reflection of Sunday, then Monday comes and it’s back to work. But it’s not the start of my working week. It’s the start of my whole week. Get the difference? The way so many of us approach the transition from Sunday to Monday is
akin to going to the gym, lazing about for half an hour then, without stretching, going straight to the bench-press and trying to do 20 reps of the heaviest weight you can possibly manage. Keeping Monday as my planning day/ exercise day means that I take the time to warm-up before trying to shoulder the big-loads. My muscles are stretched and tingling, I’ve already looked over all the apparatus I’ll be using in my workout, checked the weights on them and figured out what I’ll be able to manage, what I’ll do if I have any strength left over and what I can wait to try next time. But by the time I get into my work-out, I’m ready. As opposed to being woken up by someone shining a torch in my face, I’ve been woken by a gentle turning up of the dimmer switch.
Monday is running out onto the field in my training gear, looking over the steadily building crowd in the stadium, picking out where I’ll be on the field and visualizing what I’m going to do when I’m in that spot. Monday is jogging back down the tunnel, strapping up and taking in the mighty echo of the crowd above the dressing room. Monday is the game-plan on the whiteboard. Monday is the pre-game rev-up speech by the coach. Monday is John Kennedy, telling me “Don’t think. Don’t hope. DO!” Monday is Wayne Bennett telling me “Don’t die with the music in you.” With Tuesday comes the knock on the door, the rise to my feet and the steady march out the tunnel to face the challenges that will get the better of me unless I beat them first. The moment is here and the ref is about the blow the pea out of the whistle to start the
game. But I’m prepared for it.
If you ask me? Jack Gibson was spot-on when he said “Winning starts on Monday”…
richer and deal with their problems, and are compensated for the time and effort in monetary form. But now?
…I love Monday because it’s the beginning of the working week. I feel that Monday has been given a bad rap, thanks to people who don’t like their job, that Boomtown Rats song and ‘Garfield’. But think about it like this: if we’re running our own business, if we’re building something we’re passionate about and we’re in the drivers’ seat, then Monday is the very first day of the week we get to go at it again! It presents to us a fresh week full of opportunity after a well-deserved rest. When I first began to keep a Weekly Planner, I experimented with other days- Wednesday nights (treating it like a mid-week evaluation), Friday mornings (a jab of mental adrenalin before I got stuck into the weekend), even Sunday evenings (figuring I’d get a days’ head-start over the Monday-haters!) But putting together my Weekly Planner on all of these days felt…disjointed. Best way I can describe it.
Monday, however, is the start of the working week. My working week. I’ve (usually) enjoyed the rest and reflection of Sunday, then Monday comes and it’s back to work. But it’s not the start of my working week. It’s the start of my whole week. Get the difference? The way so many of us approach the transition from Sunday to Monday is
akin to going to the gym, lazing about for half an hour then, without stretching, going straight to the bench-press and trying to do 20 reps of the heaviest weight you can possibly manage. Keeping Monday as my planning day/ exercise day means that I take the time to warm-up before trying to shoulder the big-loads. My muscles are stretched and tingling, I’ve already looked over all the apparatus I’ll be using in my workout, checked the weights on them and figured out what I’ll be able to manage, what I’ll do if I have any strength left over and what I can wait to try next time. But by the time I get into my work-out, I’m ready. As opposed to being woken up by someone shining a torch in my face, I’ve been woken by a gentle turning up of the dimmer switch.
Monday is running out onto the field in my training gear, looking over the steadily building crowd in the stadium, picking out where I’ll be on the field and visualizing what I’m going to do when I’m in that spot. Monday is jogging back down the tunnel, strapping up and taking in the mighty echo of the crowd above the dressing room. Monday is the game-plan on the whiteboard. Monday is the pre-game rev-up speech by the coach. Monday is John Kennedy, telling me “Don’t think. Don’t hope. DO!” Monday is Wayne Bennett telling me “Don’t die with the music in you.” With Tuesday comes the knock on the door, the rise to my feet and the steady march out the tunnel to face the challenges that will get the better of me unless I beat them first. The moment is here and the ref is about the blow the pea out of the whistle to start the
game. But I’m prepared for it.
If you ask me? Jack Gibson was spot-on when he said “Winning starts on Monday”…