Monday Motivation, it’s on! We see you, struggling to get your day started and in need of a pick-me-up to launch your week on the right foot. If you’re a podcast person, listen to our Monday Matters content on our Spotify Grit Daily podcast channel. Or read on to get our Monday Motivation quick tips.
Studies show that your morning mood affects your productivity all day. Grit Daily is here to get your work week off to a good start. Pump your fists – it’s time for Monday Motivation!
Change it up
In previous Monday motivation columns, we’ve covered how the change of time affects people. I remain an advocate for darker mornings and brighter evenings because it would promote greater socializing, spur the retail economy as more people met for drinks and shopped, plus, it would get people outside to be more active after work and actually motivated to take their dogs out after being cooped up all day! And, I’m not alone.
National Geographic has reported that there is no scientific reason that requires us to change the clocks. In fact, increases in heart attacks, fatal accidents and more often result from the change thus suggesting that changing the time is actually bad for our health. But there’s a deeper Monday motivation angle here to changing it up that goes beyond what hour the clock says (and cheers to digital tech for automagically figuring out how to change my car and all the other devices that I can’t ever remember how to change).
It’s about using the change to spring a change in you. In your attitude. Simply, to put a little spring in your step.
“Spring will come and so will happiness. Hold on. Life will get warmer.”
~Anita Krizzan
Spring has Sprung
Well, not officially, but that’s a minor detail. We all recognize that the change of seasons hasn’t officially happened yet but the spring forward time change cues all of us Monday motivation peeps to begin feeling like we’re almost there. The days have been getting lighter, longer, and they’ve been getting warmer. Did you take the time to notice?
You can choose to grumble and complain about how the change of time affects you and bemoan the loss of one hour of sleep. Or, you can embrace springing forward as an opportunity to put a little spring in your step. Of course, those of us here at Grit Daily News and Monday motivation recognize that some of our readers are still knee-deep in snow and the crokuses may not yet be blooming where you are. Well, there’s a solution for that, too. Go buy some!
Tips to Spring Forward
#1 – buy yourself some flowers
Every week, I treat myself to a bouquet. Rarely is it anything fancier than what I can buy at Trader Joe’s or my local grocer, but it always makes me smile. At this time of year, embrace the spring selection. Buy some crocuses, daffodils and pussy willow branches. There is nothing else that says “Spring has sprung!” like the first crocus you see in bloom on a walk.
Embrace it. Enjoy the flowers, the pop of color and the transformation plus joy they represent. Those flower bulbs struggled in the depths and darkness of the winter, frozen, underground, and have emerged for all the world to see their beauty. Monday motivation recognizes that this transformation is not unlike what many of us experience through the gloom and doom of winter. It’s time to put the February blahs behind us!
#2 – do something for someone
It doesn’t have to be an extraordinary gesture; something simple will give you the same “lightness of being” feeling that this year represents. Spring offers us all an opportunity to be reborn, to shed our cloaks (literally) and to embrace the sun and warmth that is pending. We can feel lighter and be ready to be more, do more and share more. Monday motivation can lift us for the whole week!
Buy a coffee for a homeless person on a corner or the person behind you in line, give an extra tip PLUS a sincere smile to your barista, or buy some flowers for someone for no reason at all. Or call a friend you haven’t spoken to in a while. Whatever you do, do it from the heart. It’s that “lightness” and feeling of joy that puts a spring in our step.
#3 – hug the sun
Alright, you’re probably thinking, ‘Monday motivation gal has lost her mind!” Not so. And forget about how people around you are going to react when they see you, in the middle of your walk, pausing to look up at the sun and reaching your arms up into the sky to embrace it. Consider it a sun salutation – without the yoga posture. Allow the warmth of the sun to be felt on your face.
Pause. Experience it. Absorb it. The feeling is wonderful. Indulge it for as long as you can then walk away. You will instantly have a lighter sense of being and a spring in your step.
Monday motivation is wishing you a wonderful week where all things are not as heavy as they were before. May your steps be light and may there be joy in your heart. Have a fantabulous week!
Lead image by Diese lizenzfreien Fotos darfst du zwar verwenden from Pixabay
