Why I Love Mondays And Why You Should Too

“How are you today?” I asked one of my coworkers. “Good for a Monday I guess,” he replied. I’ve heard a lot of people say similar things about their distaste for Mondays and I’m tired of it. Monday is the most hated day of the week. But why? What is it about the Monday that people hate so much? It’s just a day like any other day.

I’ve thought a lot about this and why Mondays get so much hate. Even the word itself makes me slightly uncomfortable. Monday. Blech. But I hope that at the end of this article I can change both our minds about the first day of our work week.

Thank God It’s Friday

TGIF, or thank God it’s Friday, has become the mantra of the American workforce. But why? Why not TGIM, or thank God it’s Monday? I think I know why. I think it has to do with the mindset that people have for their lives and for their week. Let me show you how the days of the week break down for most people working typical 9:00-5:00 jobs and why this mindset is so dangerous.

Here is a breakdown of the typical week.

• Monday – Hell
• Tuesday – Day 2 of hell
• Wednesday – Hump day: the halfway mark through hell
• Thursday – Almost Friday
• Friday – Thank god it’s almost over and my freedom is almost here
• Saturday – FREEDOM at last
• Sunday – Last day of sweet, sweet freedom

The worst part about this breakdown is that I don’t believe it is even that far-fetched. So why is this so dangerous? Well to answer that question I have to ask another one first. Why are Fridays your favorite days? Why do people love the weekend so much? 

What the Weekend Really Means

Everyone loves the weekend and I am certainly no exception to that. I love my weekends. But I think people have inflated what the weekend is. I really don’t like it when I hear someone say “I’m just working for the weekend.” We’ve all heard this phrase before. So let’s figure out what makes the weekend so amazing.

I believe the love for the weekend has to do with the way people view their week. As my breakdown of the week shows, the weekend equals freedom, and we work throughout the week to get to that freedom. Friday is the end of our “work bondage” and the beginning of our personal freedom. 

On the weekend, the days are totally ours. We have the entire day to do whatever we want with whoever we want. In contrast, during the week we have to do things for other people all day whether we want to or not. We “thank God” that it’s Friday every week because it’s the beginning of our freedom. We’ve worked all week making money and now we can use that money any way we please. 

How do You Spend Your Weekend

Everyone wants more freedom but what’s freedom without something to do with it? We all want to be financially free and we want our time to be our own. We get a fleeting taste of this on the weekend which is why we love it so much. But how do you spend your weekends?

We look forward to the weekend all week but when it gets here what do we really do with that time? I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve wasted my fair share of weekends. Whether that waste came from watching too much TV or YouTube, sleeping half the days away, moping around, or not getting anything done.

We can’t wait for all the free time we’ll have but when we get it, we don’t use it responsibly. We waste it. If we don’t have anything to do with our time, then why do we want so much more of it? Do you really want more time to watch TV? I don’t. I have too much as it is.

Find Your Goal

We need to zero in on what our goals are and what it is we are working for. I don’t know about you, but I do not want to work for a weekend of watching TV. That can’t be what I’m working toward every week. There has to be more.

I think this is a major problem that people have. They work hard for their “freedom” which they call the weekend, but when they get it, they waste it. I’m no exception to this. Not by any means. I still struggle with this. But I think it’s important that we realize what we’re really working towards. So, what is your goal?

Whether you want to be financially independent, start a business, write a blog, build a better future for your family, or anything in between, how does your week reflect those goals? Your week should be a reflection and a progress report of your goals. When you reach Sunday, you should be able to look back on your week and see how you progressed and where you need to improve. Instead of your job being bondage, let it be your freedom. Your job should be helping you accomplish your goals. It should give you freedom, not take it away. Let’s say someone is trying to become financially independent and to do so they need to save and invest around $1,000,000. That’s a big number and will take them a very long time to accomplish. But having this goal in mind and using their week to accomplish it provides them with a totally different mindset. Here is how their week would breakdown:

How to Love Mondays

Mondays shouldn’t be a source of anxiety and stress. It should feel like a clean slate where we can outperform our last week. People view Mondays as the end of their freedom but it should feel like the beginning of their freedom. Monday isn’t the start of everything I have to do, it’a a new week with a clean slate that I’ll use to achieve my goals.

I view Monday as my fresh start. On Sunday I reflect on my week and what I did well and where I was slacking. I think of all the mistakes I made and everything I want to do better. When I wake up Monday, I know what I need to do and I get to work.

Sunday is also a good day to reflect on your goals and what you are working toward. When you wake up on Monday, you’ll know exactly what needs to be done. When I wake up Monday and go to work, I remember what it is I’m working toward. A personal goal of mine is to be financially independent by 40. So, when I go to work I’m not just thinking about how much work sucks. I’m doing my best at my job because I’m not working for my boss, I’m working for my dream.

Conclusion

I don’t in any way think that weekends are bad. As I said earlier, I love my weekends, but I need more in my life than just the love for the weekend. I look forward to my week because that’s when I get the most work done. The weekend doesn’t have to be your only source of freedom. Freedom, like anything else, can be earned, and it starts on Monday.

Don’t work for the weekend. Make the weekend worth it.