Monday Motivation: Get Organized

It’s that time of year, you are setting goals and of course, the infamous New Year’s Resolutions. I don’t know about you, but I have had serious issues in the past with these resolutions rarely getting accomplished, I do however believe that as far as the blog and business are concerned, I did pretty well last year, and I expect this year to be so much better.

Why?

• I have changed the way that I approach my goal setting and my mentality has shifted, I embrace hard work and understand that faith without works means nothing.

• You can believe in yourself all you want, but if you are unwilling to actually do the work, you are wasting your energy!

• Hard work is actually great.

 

• You will have ups and downs, the downs will suck, but who really gives a damn? You can either be the loser who complains or the winner who pushes past the crap and claims their win.

 

This Year, I encourage you to claim a new mentality as you approach your goals. One that embraces hard work, because the reality is that the reason that you do not accomplish the goals that you want to accomplish is because you are not working hard enough.

Excuses aside, you are the only person in charge of your destiny!

God has given you the intelligence, strength, and ability to get up and  take advantage of it and as we focus on transformation through hard work.

 

Motivation Monday

Why do so many people despise Monday? For most, it’s the end of time off with the ones they love and back to the work for five days.  There is an innate dread for the start of a long work week filled with challenges.  I remember feeling this way about several jobs throughout my teenage and college years.  I would have rather been out having fun, even though I needed the money to support my fun. Years ago I would wake up early before the Sun, feeling like garbage and wishing I could just stay in bed.  I’d grab a coffee and breakfast then head outside to brush the snow off my train in the dark so I could travel an hour to a crappy place before chaining myself to a desk with fake lights for twelve hours.  Aside from the coffee and breakfast it sounds pretty horrible.  Are there ways to battle the Monday blahs?

Making your Monday Better

1. Sleep More

Thinking about the busy week ahead causes stress, which releases the hormone cortisol.  Cortisol is good in moderation as it helps us manage our stress.  But it has the effect of keeping us stimulated, so yes worrying about Monday does keep you awake at night.  Sleep deprivation makes everything so much worse about working.  If you can do something relaxing the night before and go to bed early you can feel well rested in the morning, which has the added effect of giving our body the extra energy and repair it needs for the week ahead.  Every time I’ve fought the Monday dread on Sunday night and gone to be early I’ve woken up feeling pretty good about Monday.

2. Make a list, check it twice

When we have problems that we can’t solve right away, they tend to dominate our thoughts.  We analyse them and they race through our head over and over again.  This comes to a head on
Sunday night because you have to face the problems on Monday.  To get things out of your head, the best thing to do is write it down, all of it.  It lets you tell your brain that you don’t have to think about it constantly; you won’t forget it because you wrote it down.  You can make a list on Sunday night or Monday morning, whenever your stress levels are high.  Once I get everything on paper I can get to it in time and forget about it for the time being, which allows me to relax and enjoy the rest of my fleeting weekend.

3. Find the good, or make some good!

Find a way to make Monday a day to look forward to.  Take up a hobby, join a club, play a sport, whatever you feel like.  For one it will make you a more well-rounded person and give you some extra social activity.  But it will also give you something to look forward to on Mondays.  You can focus on the enjoyment of this activity instead of the long grind of work.  I play ultimate frisbee on Monday nights, a sport I really enjoy.  It gives me some exercise and some social activity, two things that naturally alleviate stress (at least for an extrovert like myself).

In general, usually by Tuesday, something happens…. we suddenly don’t feel so bad.  Work just becomes the routine and we go with it.  It still isn’t ideal, but having experienced Monday, we feel the worst is over and we can keep at it a bit easier, so we don’t feel as much stress.  If you can simplify and work through Monday, the rest of the week can seem pretty good.

If you are truly unhappy about not just Mondays, but work days in general, it may be time to look for something that does make you happy.  I know some people feel stuck in the life they have, for varying reasons, but for most people, successfully moving to a more enjoyable career isn’t impossible.  You only have one life, so you should do whatever you can to enjoy it.

These days I look at Mondays with excitement, maybe because I truly love the work I do.  Yes there are challenges and it’s not always super-happy-fun-time, but I always revel in the hard times because it gives me the opportunity to truly enjoy the good stuff!  I can absolutely say I love my work and it makes every day an adventure.  Monday is a chance to reset and refocus on my goals and it sets the tone for the week ahead.

Why Forgiveness Is So Important For Writers #MondayBlogs #Writers #AmWriting

This past week I have learnt the importance of forgiveness in my creative life. It came to me after I read Spirit Junkie – A Radical Road To Discovering Self Love And Miracles by Gabrielle Bernstein. The book is excellent and really resonated with me. It is one of those wonderful self-help books where you read it and cringe a lot, as you can see yourself on the page.

There is an entire section of the book dedicated to forgiveness. I never thought about the importance of forgiveness until I read this book.

For too long I have been:

• Resenting my imperfect past projects.
• Beating myself up over my bad writing habits.
• Resenting others who walked away from failed collaborative projects many moons ago.
• Resenting some Wattpad reader feedback that I got on one of my Vampire stories.
• Beating myself up over someone’s hurtful comments about a short story that I wrote.
• Beating myself up for spending three months writing a second draft that was not good as the first draft.

Holding onto all this guilt and shame has brought nothing but pain and misery into my creative life. Wasted time and energy. As a result projects that brought me joy and happiness have been stopped, shelved or criticised heavily by me.

Writing is hard. It can be painful, tough, challenging and it can reduce one into a sobbing mess on the sofa, wedging giant slabs of chocolate into her mouth. It is also something that requires time. Writing is a craft that takes hours, months, days and years to master.

As writers we need to learn how to take a breath and remind ourselves that we are simply in training.

Forgiving myself and others this past week, for all of the above, has been enlightening and I have had a few teary moments too.

Imperfect past projects are part of our creative training. Forgiving myself about my imperfect past projects has been interesting. Accepting that they are imperfect and acknowledging that I am still very fond of them has seen a change in me. I have actually found myself going back to my The Diary of Roxy Collins podcast. This was something I stopped doing back in November because I did not think it was very good.

Do you know what? I had the most magical time recording the latest episode. It brought me so much laughter and I forgot about the quality.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and will make their own choices. In hindsight I am glad the collaborative project didn’t work out, it was the right outcome. Forgiving those who walked away has been a lot easier than I thought.

With regards the Wattpad experience, I wrote an emotionally charged death of a much-loved character and I was bound to tug on some heart-strings. I have let the experience go as well as the hurtful comment about one of my short stories. This person’s comments say more about them than they do about my writing. Forgiving them has been such a release.

I am still learning my craft and the more writing practice I get the better.

Forgiveness is the secret ingredient to moving forward with my creative life. After all this forgiveness I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.

I love this quote:

‘..sometimes when we are beating ourselves up, we need to stop and say to that harassing voice inside, “Man, I’m doing the very best I can right now.’ Brené Brown Rising Strong.

Have a wonderful day