Is Monday usually smooth sailing for you (or is it more like a scene from the Titanic)?
KEEPING YOUR SHIP ON COURSE
My last Caribbean cruise was great—well, most days. There was one exception, though. It was a rough night at sea. The ship would sway back and forth and you could hear it hit some really strong waves, but the captain kept us on course. We arrived safely to our destination. By morning (when I was doing my morning run on the top deck) it had calmed down, as we smoothly moved into the island where we were going to dock. I’ve been up in the engine room before to watch the captain and his crew steer the vessel, but I did not go up the night the sea was so unruly. I imagine that they had plenty going on and were closely monitoring our course and trying to make it as uneventful as possible. _______________That’s a lot like some Mondays, isn’t it? You’ve heard people complain about how terrible Mondays are, right? They start listing all the things that are off-course for the day. I am a person who LOVES Mondays, but I did catch myself complaining about my last Monday. I’m not sure what got into me. I quickly did an about face and pulled out the time management book I wrote (PerfectTIMING) and read my chapter where I say how much I LOVE Mondays.Does that sound strange that I had to re-read a part of my book to be sure I’m doing what I said I do? You bet. We are all bound to fall off the wagon once in a while, so the best thing is not to stress out about it. As I tell my executive coaching clients, here’s how to guard against “bad Mondays.”
- Do all you can to prepare for Monday the Friday before.
- Envision what a great day it is going to be by envisioning the perfect day.
- Then think of what might step out to bite you and be ready with Plan B or Plan C.
- Get plenty of sleep on Sunday night so that you are ready for MONDAY with high energy.
- If things don’t go your way, just “plow through the seas and stay on course”.
- Smile and/or laugh when you can so that you remind yourself that it’s not the end of the earth.
- Be sure to take plenty of breaks that day so that you can re-energize yourself.
- Look for everything that’s going right. (You probably were only looking for another bad thing.)
- Look for others who are having a bad Monday and help them whenever and wherever you can.
- Think about something great you are going to do that night so that you can look forward to it!
Guess what? It’s almost Tuesday. And Tuesdays are always G R E A T, right?
