Monday, 10/12/20: Talking about the Chicago Marathon, self-soothing tips and pumpkin bread
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 chance to sit outside at dinner on Friday, a great run on Sunday and catching up with friends last night to hear about an engagement (!!).
TODAY: I’m excited to treat myself to an afternoon iced coffee.
INTENTION: My intention this week is to do one thing each day to “cultivate community” (more below!).
Okay, your turn! And if you want to share your three steps, I am all ears. 🙂
Lesson of the Week: Cultivating Community
This past weekend would have been the annual Chicago Marathon, but like many events and large gatherings this year, the race and all the traditional weekend activities were canceled.
Marathon Weekend is one of my favorite weekends in Chicago. Sure, downtown is crowded, restaurants are packed, and roads are closed, but the actual day of the marathon (Sunday) is always pure magic.
My first apartment in Chicago was pretty close to downtown and, unbeknownst to me, right on the marathon route. The day of the 2016 Marathon, I was up making coffee and planning out my Sunday, when all the sudden, I heard crowds cheering outside my window. After a quick look outside to realize what was going on, I quickly threw on a jacket and rushed out to take part in the excitement.
I ended up staying out there and cheering on runners for about an hour. I couldn’t believe the rush of emotions I experienced from seeing veteran runners, first-time marathoners, people running for amazing causes and all the encouragement from those on the sidelines… and I wasn’t even someone who was running OR knew anyone running!
That day was one of the reasons I fell in love with living in Chicago. Standing on the sidelines with strangers, I felt like a part of something so much bigger than myself. I felt such a connection to a community.
This might be stating the obvious, but reflecting on this memory made me realize just how much has changed in regard to physically being in community with other people. I thought about missing the ability to go to a big gathering like a football game, a concert and a friend’s wedding. I thought about those rituals I would do on a daily or weekly basis alongside others, like commuting on the bus in the morning and going to church on Sunday. All things I haven’t done in over seven months.
Of course, there have also been new ways to experience community this year. For example, I’ve had a great time re-connecting virtually with a variety of friends and doing new activities with friends nearby. And I’m so looking forward to being in Florida with my immediate family for the entirety of the holiday season this year.
And even this weekend, while it wasn’t the traditional Marathon Weekend of years past, there was still some marathon magic floating around the city. Yesterday, virtually alongside 650 other people (!), I participated in a “virtual relay marathon.” I was on a team with three other people and ran one-fourth of the total distance (26.2/4 = 6.55 miles). It was so much fun and such a cool experience! Even though I couldn’t physically see all 650 participants, I felt such a sense of community just from knowing they were out there and that we were all running for the same cause.
It was a good reminder that we still can be (and need to be) connected to a community in these unprecedented times. It’s just going to require a bit more effort these days. Like pivoting from a traditional marathon to a virtual relay marathon, creativity and intentional thinking are needed to help us find community these days.
Inspired by my experience from this weekend, my challenge for myself today (and this week) is to consciously cultivate community in some new and simple ways. Want to do it with me? Here’s four ways you could start today:
Four easy (aka not groundbreaking) ways to cultivate a sense of community this Monday:
- Text or call a friend or a loved one you’ve been thinking about. I promise this simple act will make their day, and as a result, make yours as well.
- Find something to do together from afar. There is something so fun about bonding over a shared experience. Suggest to a friend that you both should read a certain book or watch a TV show at the same time. One of my friends and I are in our own little book club and we are reading Majesty right now (the sequel to the book American Royals!). After we finish the book, we’ll listen to this book club podcast and then discuss. So fun! And say what you want about it, but The Bachelorette starts on Tuesday and it is the perfect show to watch and text about with your friends in real-time.
- Set a timer for 15 minutes and do some research on fun holiday gifts. One of the best feelings is when you gift that perfect gift to a friend or family member. Remind yourselves of all the special people in your life by creating your list of people you want to get gifts for this year and start brainstorming a few fun ideas.
- Do one nice and unexpected thing for someone else. You can most certainly cultivate community with strangers too! Buy someone’s coffee, hold a door open, give someone a compliment, etc. Much like reaching out to a friend, this act of kindness could make the stranger’s day and I promise it will be a high point of your day too!
Let me know if you try one of the above today and what you want. And as always, thank you for being part of this community!! I’m so glad we get to connect through this newsletter.
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:
- Article about unexpected ways to comfort yourself right now. Loved the variety of de-stressing tips included in this article. My favorites included the basics, fidgeting and milkshakes (yum!).
- I was so excited to see that Glennon Doyle was on Gretchen Rubin’s podcast last week!: Two of my favorite authors! If you are a fan of Glennon and/or Gretchen, you will love this conversation. As noted in the episode’s description, they touch on topics such as the tension among rebellion, conformity and freedom as well as why it’s important to be able to disappoint others so that you never disappoint yourself. My personal favorite part was at the 25:55 minute mark when they talked about what “being bold” means (Spoiler: it doesn’t mean you have to be the loudest in the room).
- Finally found an easier way to make spaghetti squash noodles. Last night I had spaghetti squash noodles with bolognese sauce for dinner – yum! I used to be intimated by spaghetti squash because I was never able to cut it in half before baking (anyone else?!). But thanks to this article, I learned you can pierce the squash all over, cook it whole for an hour (flipping it over halfway) and then cut it in half after. So much easier!
- Need to make this pumpkin bread right now. How good does this recipe look?! And somehow made in one bowl with ingredients likely to be found in your pantry?! Sold.
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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