Monday, 1/11/21: Talking about being light, a new idea and book roundups

Happy Monday!

It’s a new week, which means it’s time for your next Monday motivation newsletter. Read on below for some steps to a happier Monday, a short story and a roundup of positive thoughts to get your week started.

Three Steps to a Happier Monday

Each newsletter starts with three prompts to inspire gratitude and simple intention setting. Take a moment and jot down answers to these three questions. To give an example, I share my answers below.  

Step 1: What are three things I appreciated from the weekend? 

Step 2: What is one thing I can be excited about today?

Step 3: What is my intention for this week? 

GRATITUDE: From my weekend, I am thankful for the lunch my mom and I had on Saturday, the show the Queen’s Gambit (so good!) and beautiful weather for a long run on Sunday. 

TODAY: Today I am most excited to watch the College Football National Championship Game with my family, eat some tailgate food for dinner and enjoy the blissful feeling of watching a football game with no stress about who wins. 

INTENTION: My intention for this week is to spend a little bit of time each day outside. 

Okay, your turn! And if you want to share your three steps, I am all ears. 🙂

Lesson of the Week: Embracing Being Light

“It is easy to be heavy; hard to be light.” — G.K. Chesterton

This is a quote that I thought of often last week as I, like many of you, was glued to watching the news and trying to process what was happening. 

I don’t include this quote to discount any heavy feelings or imply that it’s “easier” to experience things like anger, concern or sadness over feelings like joy, gratitude or excitement. Instead, I mention this quote because, at least for me, I found comfort in it. It helped me understand why I wasn’t able to be light at the end of last week. “It is easy to be heavy; hard to be light.”

It also made me think about the purpose of this tiny little newsletter. After events of last week, the idea of “a Monday motivation newsletter” can feel out-out-touch and even unimportant. But I disagree.

The very idea of this newsletter is to bring some lightness into our weeks, starting with our Mondays, and us striving for that is no easy feat. It’s much easier to slip into the typical Monday loop of dreading the day, complaining about being tired and wishing the week would speed by. It’s harder to approach a Monday with a sense of lightness. But even by just reading this newsletter right now, you are doing that.  

“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” — Dr. Wayne Dyer

Right now, it’s easy to look at the rest of 2021 and instantly focus on the heavy things that are out of our control. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want that to be my sole focus for the rest of the year. I want to shift focus to thinking about what is in my control and practice bringing a sense of lightness to those things.

But how?

I got to thinking about what this newsletter has taught me. And I realized that many of the greatest lessons have come from you: your responses to what’s shared or your tried-and-true tips that make various things more enjoyable. As I thought about this, I got really excited about the prospect of figuring out a way to share this part of the newsletter with all of you.

What if we were able to cultivate a system that allowed us to learn from one another, share success stories and support each other in a year when many of us need it?

What would you say? Would you be in? If so, here’s my idea: starting this month, I’ll begin a new monthly series. We’ll start on Monday, Jan. 25, and moving forward, the newsletters on the last Monday of the month will be dedicated to this project.

During the first month, I’ll share a topic to focus on (something that is an ordinary, mundane part of life and in our control for the most part – like our approach to Mondays) with some initial thoughts on how to make it more enjoyable and lighter. If it sounds appealing, we’ll use the next month to experiment and see what works and what doesn’t. Throughout the experimentation, I would love your feedback (there will be an option to submit anonymously of course) and in the month that follows, all the “lightness hacks” collected will be featured in a newsletter. It will kind of be like a monthly book club… but sans books and focused on happiness.

The result? We’ll end 2021 with a tangible takeaway: our very own joy toolbox, filled with a variety of strategies, hacks, tips and tricks for bringing lightness into six different areas of our life.

What do you think? The sharing of the feedback every other month is what I’m most excited about. Nothing is one size fits all, especially as it relates to defining happiness, so I think it will be invaluable to hear hacks and reactions from different people. You never know what will end up sparking inspiration for you!

If you’re interested in participating, I have two questions for you today:

1. Which topics would you want to see included? I was thinking January/February could be focused on “Lighter Mondays” (as an homage to the intention of this newsletter) and March/April could be focused on a “Lighter Approach to Budgeting” (another passion area of mine), but I’d love to hear from you as we decide on the remaining topics. What’s a normal, everyday thing that’s pestering you? What’s something that occurs somewhat regularly that is inherently not joyful?
2. Do you have any idea for this series/project/challenge? Let’s be honest, everything is more fun with a pithy name, so open to any suggestions. 😊

Can’t wait to hear your thoughts!

On My Monday Radar

Sometimes we just aren’t ready to jump into our Monday to-do list right away. In case you want some content to procrastinate with, here is a roundup of a few positive things on my radar:  

• I look forward to this annual book roundup from Grace every year! I frequently source my book recommendations from Grace’s blog, The Stripe, or from her chats on the book/lifestyle podcast she co-hosts, Bad on Paper. She read 96 books this year (wow!), so if you are looking for a book recommendation, make sure you check out this roundup. They are ranked and sorted by genre.  
• Roundup of 15 books to help you keep your New Year’s resolutions. This might be one of my most favorite book roundups ever. I’ve read and loved a couple of these books on the list (like Better Than Before, Super Attractor, Becoming, Daring Greatly) and I’m adding all the others to my nonfiction TBR (to-be-read) list now.
• I really enjoyed listening to this podcast episode with Lori Gottlieb about stories we tell ourselves. I’ve heard Lori, a therapist, TED speaker and best-selling author, speak on a few other podcasts (like her interview on Armchair Expert!) and always enjoy listening to her message and the knowledge she brings. I haven’t read her very popular memoir Maybe You Should Talk to Someone yet, but it’s definitely on my radar (& I’m thrilled it’s being turned into a TV series!). 
• Five ideas for ways to beat those winter blues. Winter is always a challenging season, but especially this year, the suggestions, exercises and activities in this roundup could be helpful for feeling a bit better during this time. 

That’s all for today! I hope you found something in today’s newsletter that sparked motivation, made you smile or inspired a positive Monday thought. Don’t underestimate the power of starting small… a fulfilling week starts with just one fulfilling day. You’ve got this! 

Let’s make it a great Monday!
Megan

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