As per usual, on this beautiful Monday morning, I’ve seen a few dozen “Never Miss A Monday!” posts on FB and IG. While I understand it’s well-meaning, it does more damage than good. This past Fall, I sparked a little “rah-rah” in the social media world with this post on my personal IG page, and felt like it needed to be dredged up again here (which is why the seasonal references are a bit… dated. But the message is still clear, and it’s IMPORTANT) as it speaks to what VSFF is about at its core.
Let’s talk about that phrase: Never Miss A Monday. Wanna know a, not-so-secret, secret? I hate it. Why? Because you legitimately cannot miss a Monday. Unless you die on a Sunday. Seriously. The whole entire approach is horrible. I get it. You want to tell people Mondays are important.
Guess what? We all know. Monday is a real ass kicker.
Those who don’t have weekend jobs are struggling to get back into the swing of that working thing. Kids up through college are dragging and shuffling to class.
Mondays suck. And they’re often the hardest day to get through.
Why on earth are we making it even worse by telling those who are trying to work on their best self, if you don’t get movement, eat “right”, etc… You failed! Why are we putting that added stress on?
Just stop it. All of it. I didn’t miss Monday. I hauled my exhausted ass that worked all weekend out of bed. I gathered all of my gear, and Moose, and was on the road to my parents house at 6 a.m., 11 miles away from my house, because that’s where Moose hangs out on Mondays. With Nanny and Bampy. Then, I drove the 8 miles to work. That’s right, my Mondays involve me driving 19 miles right off the bat (other work days, it’s just a 5 mile commute into the office). I worked a full 8 hour office day, trained a client, then came home and worked for my day job another two hours. I had a workout planned. I also hoped to get in some yoga since the past three days had been so entirely full that I didn’t do any. (That’s right all of you make time people, there are days when there isn’t time. You have to accept that and stop killing yourself trying to make time out of no time.) But my nephew had his first football game of the season. We had mud puddles in the driveway. I took 20 minutes out of my day to put my boots on, to put Moose’s snazzy new boots on – and go out and splash in the puddles. I pushed yoga aside to spend time jumping in dirty puddles with my child. Then, we packed up and shipped out to football. By the time we left that, made a stop at a store for things we needed, and got home, it was time for a very, very late dinner, quick showers and then bed.
Two things of importance here: don’t skip out on sleep to make time. Your body needs that reset button. Your brain, your heart, all that ooey gooey squishy inside NEEDS sleep. Neglecting it to “never miss a Monday” is only going to cause serious problems in the long run (and issues on the short term too). You are also sabotaging your goals by working out on little sleep, or working out exhausted. If you have weight-loss as a goal, you are messing with that too. So just don’t. At least 6 1/2 hours. Do it. You owe your damn body.
The most important thing: don’t miss moments to make time either. I get it, self-care. It’s important. But, I’m talking something different here. This whole thing of competing to be the busiest, boast the least amount of sleep time, the business of being busy – just quit it. Take the time with your children, your family, friends, loved ones. You need that too. If you’re consistently putting all of that off to the side to “never miss a Monday” you are short changing yourself.
You can makeup a missed workout. You can’t makeup missed time with loved ones.
Life is too damn short, and in the blink of an eye, they can be gone. …and you know what? For every Monday you are able to wake up, you’ve already checked in for your Monday. So, job done.
