May I be honest here? I used to hate Mondays. I didn’t just hate them, I despised them, loathed them. I woke up on Monday morning with a dread-filled heart. If I could just sleep through the whole day I would have. Week after week.
I’m trying to think back to when exactly I started hated Mondays, and I really can’t pinpoint the time. It most likely happened as a child, because really, who wants to go back to school on Monday after a fun-filled weekend?
As an adult, the same thought pattern applied. I didn’t want to get back to the grind and slog through that first day of the week. Doesn’t everything always go sideways on Monday?
When you are a stay at home mom, you’re all alone since your husband went back to work, so all of the home and child responsibilities fall back on your shoulders. This is a really heavy burden to bear. At least on the weekends, you get to share the burden.
Everything that could go wrong on Monday generally did, and even if it didn’t all actually go wrong, I built Monday up to be such a big, bad monster that it FELT like everything went wrong.
I was completely swamped by my awful Monday Mentality. It became a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Just like I cannot pinpoint when my Monday-hating began, I also cannot pinpoint when it ended, but it’s only been less than a year.
Let me let you in on a little secret. I kinda love Mondays now. I anticipate them, I reach for them, I grab onto them, and then I squeeze the living daylights out of them. I get more done on Monday than every other day in my week. I won’t say it’s a breeze, it’s not.
Things still go wrong, but I refuse to let those Monday Mishaps derail my amazing Mondays. So what’s changed?
Monday is a Fresh Start
Somewhere along the way I stopped thinking of Mondays as the weekend party crasher and started looking at Mondays as the start of something great.
You know how everyone always looks to January 1 as a fresh start and a new beginning? I have a January 1 every single week! It’s my opportunity to try harder, reach deeper, work smarter, tidy up better, read to my children more, eat healthier, and exercise more.
This is the day that I whip my house back into shape after a weekend of relaxing, and I have the energy to do just that because over the weekend I was…relaxing!
Instead of New Year’s Resolutions, I set New Week Resolutions, and you know what? I hit them way more often than I hit New Year’s Resolutions. It’s funny how only having 7 days to accomplish a goal can motivate a girl.
Dress For the Monday You Want, Not the Monday You Have
Another way that I make my Mondays amazing is by dressing the part. If you’ve read much on my blog you know that I get dressed and set every day, but I take a little extra time on Monday.
I don’t just look presentable on Mondays, I look fantastic. When I look fantastic, I feel fantastic, and when I feel fantastic, fantastic things happen. It’s just the way life works.
You don’t need to get dressed to the nines, but tie on a scarf, or put in a pair of sparkly earrings. Try just one small thing on Mondays to make yourself a little more polished and see if it doesn’t help your mentality for the rest of the day.
Take No Prisoners
On Mondays, in order to bring the household back under control, I have to shift into “take no prisoners” mode. This doesn’t mean that I turn into a drill sergeant and start yelling at the kids.
Just the opposite. Kindness is the law of the day. There is absolutely no room for frustration or tempers, they only kill the mood and slow me down.
Whenever a mishap happens, and it will, clean it up as quickly as possible and move onto the next task. This is one of those times, Mamas, that you are teaching and leading your children through example.
If something goes wrong in your day, like a mess, a spill, an injury, etc. and you handle it with grace and a smile, your children are watching, and they are learning. This is where the term “grace under fire” originates.
Teach your children grace under fire every single Monday.
Your attitude is only half of the “take no prisoners” equation. The other half is about resetting your home. I mentioned earlier that I relax on the weekend, and it is true.
Unless we are having company on Saturday or Sunday, I keep the laundry going, and we all do basic maintenance (dishes, pet care, and keeping the living room picked up), but the clutter around the house starts to accumulate, and the kitchen generally isn’t swept, and the living room isn’t vacuumed.
So there is some work that needs to be done in order to get the house back to 10 minutes until clean. I do my best to get this done early in the day with the children’s help. We take back control of the house, but we do this with an attitude of dominion, not of servitude.
The attitude makes all the difference.
Is it time for a Monday Morning Mindset change in your home? Like all major mindset changes, it’s best to start out small and with a change of perspective. Start out by looking at your Monday as a fresh start and see where that takes you.
Prepare to be surprised, and be prepared to surprise your husband. Mine still has a hard time believing how much I love my Mondays now.
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