Monday morning came up and hit me HARD. It is not uncommon for me to have “a case of the Mondays,” but for some reason this one was particuarly severe. Usually when the alarm goes off and it’s time to get the kids ready for school and therapy, I might have a moment of “aw, man, I don’t want to do this.” But this particular morning went to a whole different morning.
For the first time I can remember in quite a long time, I could feel my mind drifting to, “OK, what if I DIDN’T get out of bed? What if I just stayed under the covers all day?”
Of course, I am a responsible grown up with kids and a job, so I couldn’t do that, but I won’t say the idea didn’t dance around my brain for a milisecond or two.
Amelia was clearly feeling the same way, and was harder than usual to drag out of bed that morning. Nothing like the unmotivated leading the unmotivated, but that’s where we were. Eventually we did get moving and a little coffee helped at least nudge me forward, but the day was a bit of a slog.
Part of the reason I was dragging so badly was probably just the remants of a pretty busy week and weekend, and I was feeling a little gassed. Part of it also probably came from the fact that I had a ton of work to do that day, and I was dreading the climb back up.
But, much like Amelia sitting down to virtual school, I finally just put my head down and got to it. I made a list of things to get through, and even though I felt like I was going to face plant much of the day, the incredible thing was that I actually got through quite a lot of the list.
I was working on an update to a presentation I needed to give on Tuesday, and was working pretty hard on that. After work I took Amelia to piano lessons and was still plunking away at it while I waited in the car. Even after the kids were in bed, I was back at it on that front, and also did some up front work on a freelance article I’m working on, and still got a little work in on my book project.
So somehow, without my really noticing while it was going on, I wound up having an extremely productive day. That was a far cry from my initial urge to just stay under the covers the entire day. And it was by no means any special sauce or major motiviational push. What it was, quite simply, was taking one step and then another and then another. Without really taking a moment to get overwhelmed by the big picture, I just methodically moved through the day.
I can’t claim it was any grand scheme or intentional technique. I think I was in such a haze that I didn’t really think about what I was doing, and maybe in this case that really served me well. It helped change the whole nature of my day.
“Changing your day from bad to good? Why it’s as easy as taking your first step!”
