“On Mondays, I feel like a kid dreading school. I want to hide under my covers and go back to sleep.” Jay said.
I recall a client – Jay is a 33 year old business manager at a small company in East Lyme, Connecticut – who said he’s felt this way for a long time.
Not only do I sympathize, I empathize, having felt the same way for three years of private practice in big law firms.
I would not only get the Sunday blues but often some pangs of anxiety on Saturday.
Indeed, I recall what might have been a low when I was in a breakfast with my wife and then young son and heard the JFK Jr. died in a plane crash. I was cultivating a sense of perspective at the time and recall thinking: I’m luckier than that….
Now, I wonder how bad I must have been feeling to even ponder a tragic plane crash in the context of just going to work.
When I made my transition to education-entrepreneur, I moved from having anxiety on Monday mornings to a mixture of excitement-anxiety. I still had nervous energy because I was the sole provider of 5 and, of course, worried about failing. But I also had excitement. And, as I’ve learned, nervousness is just energy that if redirected becomes excitement.
When I shifted my personal practice to doing more career counseling (I still am the CEO of The Learning Consultants. I mostly have excitement on Monday mornings. I look at my calendar and review who I will see each day with positive energy. You deserve the same.
One of my key epiphanies was the recognition that my split life: happy at home and unhappy at work was not as split as I thought it could be.
While I was at home – happily married with a baby – I was happy… except when thoughts of work would creep into my mind.
That’s the plight of a knowledge worker. Your work is in your brain.
This is very different than those who work in manufacturing. I spent a summer working in a warehouse. There was nothing to think about when the day ended. I packed and moved boxes that day and would do so the next day. There was no paper work or e-mails or phone calls or thoughts about the job after work.
2025 -a new year – time to take control of your work happiness… and personal happiness.