Monday, 10/9/23: Talking about the Chicago marathon and falliday!

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: I’m thankful for fall activities, an open schedule and watching the Chicago Marathon yesterday. 

TODAY: Today I’m most excited to start reading this new book.

INTENTION: My intention this week is to think about my 0.2 task at the end of each day (more below!). 

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

Meaningful Musings: What’s Your 0.2 Task?

This weekend was the 45th (!) Chicago Marathon. 

I love marathon weekend. For five years, I lived right along the course and I loved getting to be so close to the action. There’s something about watching people overcome this amazing physical feat and seeing all the spectators cheering on strangers from the sidelines that just gets to me. It always makes me emotional! 

It also reminds me of something I heard back on the day of the Chicago Marathon in 2019. 

I’ve written about this before, but I was at a live taping of Gretchen Rubin’s Happier podcast and the audience was sharing “happiness hacks.” One person stepped up to share that inspired by the thousands of people who had just run the 26.2 miles in Chicago that day (including herself!), when she gets to the end of her day, she tries to pick a “0.2” task to complete. She sees it as her sprint to the finish line in her marathon of a day.

I loved this idea! We usually don’t have much time or energy for one more thing from our to-do list when we are ready to call it a day. But what if we picked to a task that took a minute or less to complete? It feels like such an easy way to set ourselves up for a more enjoyable tomorrow, and sounds like a nice ritual to signal “end of the day” to ourselves.

For example, possible 0.2 tasks at the end of my workday could be either making a to-do list for tomorrow, cleaning off my desk, sorting through my email inbox or sending a quick note of gratitude. Or outside of work, I might decide to quickly wipe down the counters, set the coffee machine, pick out a outfit for tomorrow, before I jump into bed. All small things, but things nonetheless that make things a bit more enjoyable for “future me.” 

So, what do you think? At the end of your marathon Monday today, when the finish line is in sight, what would you pick as a task to be your sprint to the finish line? 

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:  

• Matt and I designated last Saturday as “falliday,” and we had so much fun! The standouts of the day were this chili and this pumpkin bread. Yum! 
• A fun Falliday moment: I walked into Starbucks to pick up my mobile order, and while waiting, a nice girl complimented my new sweater (of course you wear a new sweater on falliday!). She knew right away it was the Rollneck sweater from J. Crew because she was considering getting it too, and as I told her, I love it. It’s a great transitional piece because it’s not too heavy (fyi, I have in the Pale Bond shade). Just then, we were interrupted by the barista saying he had two pumpkin cream cold brews for two different Megan’s… we just looked at each other and started laughing – same name, same coffee, same taste in sweater 🙂 love moments like that. (And you are in the market for a new sweater, highly recommend the Rollneck!)
• 7 lessons for organized living. This article made me want to read Shira Gill’s new book Organized Living!! Just placed a hold at the library and can’t wait to flip through it.
• Football Sunday recipes. Yum! Bookmarking a few of these to make during this football season.

Picture of the Week

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