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I Don’t Hate Mondays

February 8th, 2010

Depressed Office Worker

I was sit­ting in Star­bucks this mor­ning when a young guy came up to the coun­ter. When the Barrista asked him how he was he grun­ted and said “I hate Mon­days”. He couldn’t have soun­ded more pathe­tic if he wanted to. He acted as if waking up Monday mor­ning was like a trip to the elec­tric chair. If you hate what you do each week so much — DON’T DO IT!I unders­tand that my com­ments may be igno­rant of his situa­tion, but his words forced me to think. How many people wake up each day drea­ding going to work? If this is you, then what are you doing about it? Are you trying to get out of the rut you’re in and start doing something you love?

I am still wor­king a couple days each week doing web/graphics for an ath­le­tic club. I don’t hate that job, but I don’t LOVE it either. I love hel­ping churches design and build ama­zing web­si­tes. That’s what I’m exci­ted to wake up and start doing. So I’m wor­king my tail off to build my busi­ness and even­tually be able to focus solely on that.

Here are a couple great books that I’ve read recently on this topic:

When you love what you’re doing, you don’t hate Mon­days anymore!

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This entry was posted on Monday, February 8th, 2010 and is filed under Advice.

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17 Responses to “I Don’t Hate Mondays”

  1. Tom said...

    February 8th, 2010 at 5:53 pm

    Des­pite the fact that I do an entire Monday series, I don’t hate on it either. Nor do I hate my job.

  2. Nate Davenport said...

    February 8th, 2010 at 6:24 pm

    my song, “new hope” is writ­ten about this very idea. most people get caught up in the idea that change has to be a gran­diose leap into obli­vion, resul­ting in lavish hap­pi­ness and ful­fill­ment (and enjo­ying waking up on mon­days). it’s much like the chris­tian life, it’s not as much about a huge one-time deci­sion as it is about cons­ciously making small deci­sions every day, taking one step towards a defi­ned goal (which may or may not have come as a huge reve­la­tion), and never giving up!

  3. Vin Thomas said...

    February 8th, 2010 at 6:24 pm

    You don’t hate it, or you love it?

  4. Vin Thomas said...

    February 8th, 2010 at 6:25 pm

    So true Nate! Do you have a link to that song for us to listen?

  5. Tom said...

    February 8th, 2010 at 6:26 pm

    I just meant that I don’t hate on Mon­days. I can’t say that I love Mon­days, but they aren’t a burden for me.

  6. Bo Lane said...

    February 8th, 2010 at 6:32 pm

    When you work a lot, as I tend to do, the days just seem to melt together. Sunday is kinda like Monday and Thurs­day is really no dif­fe­rent than Friday. But I guess that if I didn’t love what I did, it would be much more dif­fi­cult to cope with the mun­dane. But I agree, if you’re not going what you love, it’s time to change.

  7. @joshhemsley said...

    February 8th, 2010 at 6:33 pm

    I can’t say I hate Mon­days nor do I hate my job but I do feel that there seems to be an extra sense of pres­sure and stress that likes to accom­pany the start of the new week for me. I think it may be due to the houn­ding 50 emails I wake up to and the uncer­tainty of how the rest of the week will unfold.

    But jum­ping into Mon­days with a pes­si­mis­tic atti­tude can only lead the rest of the week down the wrong path. I always try to mark stress­ful days as cha­llen­ges. It’s kind of like wor­king out to me. I always dread actually get­ting myself star­ted but once I’m there and actually in the flow of it I love it. But that ini­tial reac­tion seems to always be dreadful.

  8. Vin Thomas said...

    February 8th, 2010 at 6:38 pm

    Yeah, it usually takes me a couple hours before I’m back in the swing of things on Monday mor­ning. Some­ti­mes it’s hard to get going, but since I am doing what I love, it’s not too bad. Coffee helps…

  9. @joshhemsley said...

    February 8th, 2010 at 6:40 pm

    lol ya I guess Im mis­sing out on that power boos­ter you call coffee. I wish my hot cocoa had the same effect :)

  10. Michael Locke said...

    February 8th, 2010 at 6:43 pm

    Exactly, Simi­lar to you, my glass is always half-full, never half-empty. Monday’s are great because it’s the start of another week full of pos­si­bi­li­ties. Who know’s what’s going to happen. Do I love not being solely inde­pen­dent on my own, run­ning my own ship 100%, NO. But I like the fact that anything is pos­si­ble if you work hard. We have to learn to enjoy each day and the pro­cess of having to bust our butts to get to where we want to be. I love the pro­cess and the pos­si­bi­li­ties each day brings. Everywhere I go and all the people I come in con­tact with, I try to keep this posi­tive out­look. First, we have to be thank­ful what God gives us each day. Also, nega­tive thin­king just puts you in a rut. To many people go around half-empty. And like the Word says, you reap what you sow. Thanks for the pick-me-upper this morning! ;)

  11. @bburridge said...

    February 8th, 2010 at 6:55 pm

    It is a shame when someone has to work a job they hate, but, that doesn’t always mean hating Mon­days is due to the job they have. It may be because of how they handle having that job. I highly recom­mend you add the book The Fred Factor in regards to a topic like this. If you haven’t read it, you should. Its quick, and touches on a very impor­tant topic, of how to approach your current job, even if it isn’t your dream job, and do your best at that job. While its noble to pursue your dreams, it is in fact a pur­suit, and can take time to make the transition.

    For those that have a job they love, but hate Mon­days, I second your recom­men­da­tion on the Four Hour Work week. It has a good many steps to take to reduce the fee­ling of being behind and overwhel­med. In the end, stress isn’t caused by the envi­ron­ment we are in, its caused by how we react and handle the situa­tion. Myself? I love Monday’s. I chomp at the bit for Monday mor­ning so I can get star­ted. The only time I dread a monday, is if Ive allo­wed myself to get burned out or didn’t pro­perly set myself up for a good Monday, on the pre­vious work day.

  12. Vin Thomas said...

    February 8th, 2010 at 7:21 pm

    Awe­some! That’s how I feel to the tee. Even though I am not exactly where I’d like to be, I am wor­king hard to get there. I am not going to wallow in self-pity. I am stri­ving each day to move closer to my achie­ving my goals.

  13. Vin Thomas said...

    February 8th, 2010 at 7:23 pm

    Yeah, I know that some­ti­mes we can’t just drop everything and pursue our dreams. But you can take steps to get there. Too many people just give up and don’t even try any­more. My whole point is that if you hate what you’re doing, you should be willing to put some old fashio­ned sweat into chan­ging your circumstances.

    Thanks for the book recom­men­da­tion. It looks like a good read: http://www.fredfactor.com/

  14. @bburridge said...

    February 8th, 2010 at 9:17 pm

    Totally agree with you on put­ting in an effort. If there is one thing in life that annoys me more than anything else, its hea­ring people com­plain when they aren’t doing anything about the situa­tion they are com­plai­ning about. If you hate your job, but aren’t willing to work hard to change it, then the only thing you should com­plain about is your own lazi­ness. I believe in being con­tent in your current situa­tion (Fred Factor) while bus­ting your butt to improve or change your situa­tion (4 hr work week, crush it).

  15. @KaraBrooks said...

    February 8th, 2010 at 9:35 pm

    I have to say, I use to hate Mon­days.. but what kid going to school doesn’t? I feel that for some, Mon­days are an end to a great wee­kend… Which was the case for me. Howe­ver, that is still no excuse to hate Mon­days. The daw­ning of a new week brings forth new oppor­tu­ni­ties and even the mun­dane situa­tions. Though, I may not have my dream job at the moment and the week maybe hard.. I go forth hap­pily kno­wing that my efforts will not be unre­war­ded. Wor­king hard always pays off sooner or later.

  16. @KaraBrooks said...

    February 12th, 2010 at 11:31 pm

    Well of coarse loo­king back on our high school years, we wonder why we hated it. I’m sure there’s good rea­sons, but that’s a whole dif­fe­rent topic.

    I totally agree, I wish that life now was as simple as life then.. I could live without worr­ying about most things “grown-ups” deal with. Howe­ver, there are many life les­sons recently lear­ned that are good growth expe­rien­ces. So, in essence I wouldn’t trade it.

  17. Vin Thomas said...

    February 12th, 2010 at 9:43 pm

    I was thin­king about this the other day. How stupid of us to hate school? High School was a breeze! I wish I had that little res­pon­si­bi­lity now :)

    It’s a tough life going to see your friends all day to learn and have fun.

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