Ah, Monday.
The day most people hate.
Monday should be an exciting day. The day you get back to work at the job you love to do. (If it’s not, something needs to change.) But that’s a post for another day.
Today we’re going to talk about obstacles and the reason you don’t have what you want out of life yet.
The biggest obstacle to any week is getting derailed off the goals that really matter. Not just the ones that everyone else wants you to accomplish, but the big goals, the legendary ones.
Starting Monday, most of us get straight to work on other people’s goals. We check our e-mail and respond to the chaos that has rolled in throughout the weekend.
My inbox currently sits at 126 e-mails. Many of them opportunities, some of them problems, most of them miscellaneous. But none of them are more important than the work I need to do this morning.
Once you get into your inbox, you’ll almost never get out of your inbox. You’ll start thinking about other people and their problems, their demands on your time. Everyone wants your time, but are you giving yourself enough of your own time?
This is what I mean by preparing for the obstacles of the week.
Distractions will come. You already know what 99% of them are! Why are you acting surprised when they come?
Only about 1% of the things that take away our time are true emergencies we didn’t see coming.
Everything else, you can prepare to win.
Oh, you cheated on your diet because you went to that same doughnut shop you seem to stop at every single Wednesday? Yeah. That wasn’t a surprise, you just didn’t plan to beat that obstacle. That’s your own fault.
I was a victim for a long time and would blame all these situations for derailing me off my goals, until I took responsibility and took charge of planning for my known weaknesses.
I knew that if I had the chance to watch a movie instead of going to the gym that I would take it.
I knew that if I had the chance to eat ice cream instead of eating within my meal plan, I would take it.
I knew that if I got into my inbox Monday morning instead of working on my own goals, Monday would somehow disappear to everyone else’s problems.
We encounter the same problems almost every single week. What are you going to do to beat them?
To combat movie watching, I got rid of my TV. I would only allow myself to check my Twitter when I was at the gym doing cardio. I love Twitter, so that was my reward and now that I’m at 84 consecutive nights in the gym, it clearly has worked.
To combat ice cream, I simply don’t fucking buy it. If the temptation isn’t there, I can’t cheat. I planned my meals out. I cooked them in advance. I prepared to win.
To combat my inbox, I only skim my inbox at noon and then only answer the urgent e-mails. Every other email can wait until the evening. I also stopped taking and making calls on Monday morning, because phone calls are always a time waster.
The most important thing on Monday is getting the week started on your terms. Even if you have a 9 to 5, stop being a sissy and get up early to work on something that matters to you.
It is completely my fault if this year doesn’t go the way I want it to. I know my distractions. I know my weaknesses. If I don’t have a plan to beat them, they will win every single time.
I had too many years of throwing my hands in the air and playing the victim card. Never again.
If you have a plan, you don’t even have to think about it. You just follow the fucking plan. Our willpower is limited, so the less decisions you have to make, the better. This is why a plan is essential.
You know what gets you off course. You know what gets you away from the gym. You know what meals you can’t fight a craving against. You know who distracts you the most.
Minus the true life emergencies, it is 100% your fault if you lose the week to something you already saw coming.
No warrior goes into battle without knowing the enemy.
Take a sheet of paper. List your top two priorities in your life.
What do you need to do in those two areas? What would really get you closer to your long-term goals? Write them down.
Now, what obstacles get in the way every single week that take you away from your goals?
List two, no fuck that, five ways you will beat those distractions.
Prepare to win.
Most people hate Monday because it’s spent on everyone else’s terms. Dominate Monday on your terms, and you’ll never hate Monday again.
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