On Monday’s Defence

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” – Albert Einstein

Every single Monday an endless amount of complaints are posted on every social network showing how much people despise the coming of this day. This has become a weekly tradition and you better share the feeling, or you’ll end up standing in a corner try to figure out what’s wrong with you.

But if you happily wait for Monday, or you simply don’t feel a strong negative emotion associated with its inevitable advent, there is nothing wrong with you. Actually, you are probably saner than most people.

“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

Useless Complaints

Ok, maybe Nietzsche is not the best example of sanity (some might argue, though…) but the point here is that we (I have fallen into this trap in many occasions) often invest a great deal of effort in complaining about our current circumstances and yet we do little or nothing to change them. We complain, and that’s as far as we go.

If instead we invest all that emotional engagement in finding a way to change what makes us dislike the beginning of each and every week, we might soon change the very reasons why we feel this way.

Work and Happiness

The most common reason for disliking Monday is the fact that represents the beginning of the work week for most people. This says a lot about work satisfaction and I believe is a very important and underrated issue today. Work dissatisfaction is present in every kind of job, at any level of income or hierarchy. How much money you make, or how important you are in the structure of your company or venture seems to be irrelevant when it comes to measure work satisfaction.

This is not sustainable and I firmly believe we are going to see a revolution in the way we work in the next 15 to 30 years.

A Change’s Gonna Come

If you despise Monday, then my friend allow me to tell you that you’re wasting your life, because living two days a week is not living.

If you feel this way, take it as a sign that a change needs to be done, urgently. Stop complaining about Monday, or about how much you hate your job, or your boss, or your co-workers. And start investing all that energy into figuring out what needs to change in order to wake up every Monday feeling excited. Maybe simply changing departments in the same company might be enough, or maybe you feel like its time to to work for another company, or starting your own, or even switching careers.
I know it’s easier said than done, but the first step towards “done” is accepting a change needs to come.

You don’t have to look like an overly excited fairy, jumping around all day long (though if you want to, be my guess). It’s unrealistic to believe you can jump from frustration all the way to excitement. It can happen, but is not that common, and holding your expectation that high might do more harm than good. When you make a change and you jump from frustration to a neutral emotional state, you feel like if you have failed, just because “this doesn’t feel as exciting as you though…”.

But the thing is, is not that hard to switch from negative to neutral, and once you have got rid of negative emotion, you can aim for a more positive one. Is a step by step process.

If you’re already longing for next Friday, remember your negative emotions aren’t Monday’s fault. Stop today for a second, and allow yourself to truly feel. And let those feelings guide your path.

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