Some Mondays don’t seem worth getting up for.

Some Mondays hold nothing but dread for us. It could be the dread of facing a seemingly insurmountable problem. It could be the dread of enduring another day of intolerable boredom. It could be the dread of overwhelming volumes of work.

In apparent contrast to all this column stands for, a reality no amount of perspective, wisdom, or encouragement can erase is that some days simply feel impossible.

What does one do? From what source do we muster the courage to show up in spite of how we feel?

I’m not going to even pretend there is an easy answer. But I will dare to suggest a two-pronged approach.

1. Give yourself permission to feel crappy.
Instead of talking yourself out of these feelings… Instead of pushing your way through these feelings… Instead of judging these feelings as immature, pathetic, weak, or any other put-down you tend to use…

Instead of fighting the dread, acknowledge it. Affirm it. Congratulate yourself for recognizing it. Pat yourself on the back for being honest with yourself.

2. Pick one thing you will address today.
Give yourself the gift of focus. Take one thing at a time. If everything is overwhelming you, then select something.

Yes, maybe in an ideal world you would be able to sort and prioritize, multi-task and juggle. But today is not ideal. You are dreading today. So you need an alternative. You need an accommodation. You need another line of action.

I am suggesting focus as a line of action. One thing. Catch up on your email. Clean your desk. Finish a proposal. Fix the broken machine.

Yes, you don’t want to shut out all other important issues on an on-going basis. But today doing so will provide a way forward. Choosing to block them out for one day isn’t that much different than being overwhelmed by them anyway. The difference is that by blocking them out today, you will accomplish your focus task.

Doing one thing will feel good.

I suppose, then, I’m suggesting that you inject a little bit of feeling good into the whole lot of dread that is oppressing you. It might just not only give you a way forward, but begin a new trajectory made up of courage, hope, and action to boot.

On your side,

- Karl Edwards

Loving Monday is a weekly column designed to encourage us to step into our weeks with an intention to show up authentically, engage fully, and choose to make it a good week for ourselves. Explore past columns here.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 21st, 2011 at 11:55 am and is filed under Loving Monday. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.