The secret to motivation. Written by a procrastinator.
This morning I overslept! What a nightmare. I start work at 5pm and will probably be there until 11pm (I waitress). This could have easily spiraled into putting my head back on the pillow and not arising until gone midday because I don’t want to look at my list on Monday chores. Instead I am writing this post to you and then I am going to do my weekday workout. How did I get motivated?!
Motivational Monday is a phrase I see hash-tagged # all over social media and it’s all about feeling empowered and good about yourself, ready to smash the day ahead. As I’ve said with my Hump-Day Hygge article, it’s not about getting through the day and hoping it’ll go away. It’s about embracing the day as an individual day, not by what it symbolizes, simple as a day where you have to get on and do things just like a Tuesday or a Thursday.
Some steps to keep you motivated on Mondays:
- If like me, you aren’t necessarily working until later in the day, or perhaps your Mondays are your day off then you need this. Give yourself something you have to complete in the morning, something you can’t do at any other time. For example, I am going to walk with my partner to his University lecture with one of the dogs. He has to be there at a fixed time and the doggies have to be walked so this wakes me up and gets me outdoors which also refreshes me for the day. Other ideas might include arranging to meet a friend for a morning coffee or cooking breakfast for your loved ones who have to be somewhere. Getting out of bed is hard but once you’re out the hard parts done and it’s just like normal.
- Don’t set yourself impossible time to wake up! Really don’t do it. You know what I mean, ‘I’ll just set my alarm for 6am and then that’ll give me so much time to get up and ready for the day’… If you’re planned activity to wake you up in the morning is not until 10am, wake up at 8am. Setting unrealistic goals makes it that much harder to stay motivated because if you sleep past that you may find you feel even more unmotivated to get on with your day.
- Thirdly, and my final piece of advice for motivated Mondays, is to not draw focus onto anybody else. You don’t need to present a list of to do’s that you’re going to complete to anybody else. You don’t need to shout it to the rooftops what you are planning on doing full stop. Just get your head down and do it. You’ll feel much more accomplished when you have finished what you wanted to do and then you can share the positivity of the tasks you have completed rather than the expectation of what you are going to do – if that makes sense.
I hope you are feeling motivated taking these tips on board. The secret is, just do it. When you hear that niggle in your head saying snooze that alarm or don’t bother doing that today, just do it, just get up out of bed. Once you start to implement these kinds of mind set then you will start to believe all those motivational Monday quote on Instagram and Pinterest and you will believe them about you. If I, a true procrastinator (i.e. someone who is happy to press snooze for hours) can implement these 3 steps then so can you. Go for it!
L xx
Blonde-Hygge 