Monday's aren't so bad

As a business owner, every Sunday night, I would think of all the reasons why the next day was going to be awful. I'd lay awake in bed thinking of the countless emails that would need to be replied to. I'd think of all my usual clients who called me or emailed me over my weekend upset about something. Nothing disheartened me more than knowing I was going to have to deal with everyone's problems first thing Monday morning. Those thoughts alone would put me in a terrible mood before I got out of bed the next day.

As a result, my productivity plummeted. I was not hitting the figures I wanted to hit. I was not accomplishing any of the goals I had set for myself or for any of my businesses. I was consistently stressed out about things that I had no control over. Most of all, most of my stress was derived from these scenarios that I created in my head before I even fell asleep on Sunday. I would wake up 5-7 times a night worried about everything. After a year of this, I finally decided to do something about it.

People always say perspective is everything. Realizing the difference that one's perspective could make was life changing. Looking at different social media outlets much less any media outlet, you see thousands of different perspectives. Everyone is entitled to their own perspective and I will always respect that. For me, the one thing I changed was my perspective of once hated Monday. A year ago, I viewed Monday as the day that brought me crashing back to reality from my weekend away from work. It was the Grinch to my Christmas. Anything good that had happened in the past week was immediately null and void come Monday.

Many of us want fresh starts. We want to get away from our current situation and start all over. We tell ourselves that things would be better if (fill in the blank) were different or if we had just made a different decision in the past. From someone who's been there I can tell you this: dwelling on the past will not change anything. In fact, it usually only makes things worse. It brings back those emotions and all the feelings associated with it.

If you really want a fresh start, Monday is right in front of you. It's the beginning of a new week. Monday is your chance to make a change. Whether it be starting a new work out routine or doing something in a different way at your job. Monday is your opportunity to make the changes you've been dwelling on for the past however many days, months or years. Now, is everything going to be perfect going forward? Probably not. But dwelling on what has or will go wrong isn't going to help. Walls and obstacles were made to go around, over or through. Don't let them stop you. Change your perspective and turn that obstacle into an opportunity.

I can't speak for everyone, but changing my perspective made a world of difference for me. I found that I am much happier and not nearly as stressed out as I was a year ago. I look at all the obstacles thrown my way as new opportunities for me to see what I can accomplish. That is a pretty special feeling.