I love Mondays.
They give you the weekly chance of renewal. Like a mini New Years Day each week.
And just like New Years Day, it’s just another day.
So, just like the 1st of January, Monday is just a symbol for beginning again…
And we can do that whenever we want.
It’s a difficult one, isn’t? On the one hand you want to put out your best work, always.
On the other hand, perfection is the enemy of execution.
When do you say something is “good enough” and when do aim for a higher standard?
What if “good enough” actually was the best standard? If perfection delays or destroys progress, it is really something to strive for?
“Good enough” is the best because it got made. It started the conversation. It got the show on the road.
There’d be no show without “good enough”.
Celebrate your “good enough”.
And it gives you plenty in the tank for the next one.
What is a Monday Move?
A Monday Move is how your Saturday morning dreaming is put into action.
You’re out to coffee with your friend on a Saturday and you are both dreaming of that big amazing goal. It’s easy to picture it, the details fill themselves in and you have a glistening masterpiece in your head.
The trick is turning that vision into a Monday Move.
What do you do on Monday?
Why “Monday”? Well Monday has strong “back to work” connotations in the culture. It implies getting to reality.
Why “moves”? Well like a chess move, a really good move isn’t random. It’s calculated. It’s a step toward. It’s also just a move. Not a whole dance.
Monday Moves are there to remind us to to bring the glistening dream to the reality of Monday and do something about it.
What’s your Monday Move?
Whether consciously or not, we all have outcomes as teachers.
And depending on the day, they will be of varying qualities. If I’m a bit hungry and tired, in the middle of a school day my outcome might be “To get through this in one piece”
On a better day, my outcome might be “To light these kids up and get them excited about this lesson”
Taking a second state my outcome is always a good idea. We’re all here to do a job and it’s too important to let outcomes be left to chance and to be decided by the whim of your biochemistry or mood.
What is your outcome for your work today?
Do you know the feeling of being unbelievably motivated to do something?
Its the feeling of inspiration when you first decide to do something. You’re there at the finish line when a friend comletes a marathon. You’re in the audience at an award show. You attend a concert and imagine yourself up there performing.
There’s that feeling- “YES! I will do that too”
It’s a powerful feeling. You’re completely associated to the feeling of the goal.
And at that time it isn’t just a goal, it’s a visceral sensation. A pull that can be unstoppable- no one could change your mind at that time.
The further we get from that moment, the more we get disassociated with that powerful feeling.
The trick, then, is to somehow stay connected to that feeling.
It’s like a plug. The vacuum works perfectly when it’s plugged into the power source. The moment it’s unplugged… it stops. The further from the socket it gets the more useless it becomes.
The vacuum needs the plug. We need to re-associate constantly with that initial experience.
Find your way of doing this and don’t stop for anybody.
I’m beginning to wonder whether progressing in life is a series of doing things before you’re ready.
The nature of growth is that it is something just beyond where you are now. So in the moment before growth, by definition you aren’t there yet; you’re not ready.
I did not feel ready to teach for the first time
I did not feel ready to launch my own business
I did not feel ready to hit send on my first offer
These events only have two things in common: I was never ready and they completely changed my life/
Hmm- interesting.
Could it be that the life we want is just outside of our comfort zone?
I think it might be.
Blanket statements- like other types of blankets- can give us security and a sense of safety.
“I don’t listen to advice from HER.”
“I never do things like THAT.”
While they can give us certainty (highly prized for us humans) they can also cut us off from other possibilities.
SHE might have some great advice.
You might grow a little doing something like THAT.
Blankets have a funny way of covering everything. A blanket doesn’t always let you see the nuance.
But if you’re brave enough to emerge from the warmth of your blanket, you’ll see the nuance. And in that nuance lies the possibility for more.
Goals are great… when you remember them. Something I’ve noticed is I’m great at setting goals and feeling that initial enthusiasm. As I’m sure we all are. But it can be tricky to find effective mechanisms of follow through on the day to day. An inefficient way to get to any destination is to only check in a few times across the journey.
I like the image of a pilot needing to constantly course correct across the span of a flight. Did you know they are off course between 90% and 99% of the time? Pilots have to constantly course correct to get to their destination.
The same goes for our goals and I’m using a super simple daily question to help me do that. In my journal every morning I ask myself:
How can I course correct today?
It allows me to look at yesterday, what I did, didn’t do and how I spent my time. If I lived a day like that again would I get to where I want to go? If not, what could I do slightly differently today?
It’s nice to know we can be off 99% of the time and still get there.
It just requires a little course correction ✈️
Mark Duplass has this great speech he gave a few years back to aspiring film makers.
He warned us about waiting for the cavalry. That as creatives we can fall into the trap of thinking that the cavalry is coming and that any tiny incremental improvement we make in our work might trick us into believing that.
Big breakthroughs make us think the cavalry is coming. Those small wins can be intoxicating too.
Mark says the cavalry is not coming. It might feel like they are and people will tell you they are. But they’re not.
And Mark says this isn’t something to be sad about. The truth is, you don’t want the cavalry to come and save you.
The truth is, you get to a certain point of success of your own creation and the cavalry kinda is coming. Massive career changing opportunities come to you. The cavalry!
But when that happens, you don’t want ‘career changing’
You’ve worked hard for this career, thank you very much.
They came too late and you’re not interested in all the kings horses.
Because you are the king of your own castle now. And you are your own cavalry.
Mark is pretty on to it, I reckon
If they can you can.
We’d do well to remember that if someone else has gotten a result, that means we can do that too.
There may well be exceptions to this rule, but why focus on the exceptions?
If there’s a belief that serves you, you might as well believe it.
“Yeah but that person is really tall”
Or
“Yeah but they’ve got years on me.”
Or
“Yeah but I live in the wrong place”
Sure, if you look you’ll find the exceptions to any rule. And the exceptions are also handy to let us off the hook.
It’s much risker to choose to believe that if they can you can.
Don’t let yourself off the hook. What do you want? Has someone else done it?
Great.
So. Can. You.
