“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” ~Winston Churchill

Oh, how I love Monday mornings and the beginning of a new week. It is an opportunity to reignite motivation and a chance to set new goals – that’s the beauty of Monday mornings!

Not everyone feels this way. My husband and children abhor Monday mornings. They scrunch down deeper under the blankets and lollygag in bed wishing it was the weekend. I am the one who jumps out of bed excited about the start of a new week.

In my previous corporate life, Monday mornings were about meetings, conference calls, and perhaps some discussion about the previous weekend. It was easy to become caught up in email or distracted by people who just needed “a minute of your time” and miss the opportunity to focus on the day and week ahead. If that window of planning time was lost, then I felt unprepared for the week.

After leaving the corporate world into and entering the world of private coaching, I’ve become very selfish in regards to Monday mornings; they are sacred and special. I no longer make phone calls, make appointments or coach clients on Monday mornings. If you look at my planner “Me” is neatly written in the Monday 8:30 AM to 12:30 AM time slot.

Each Monday, I take a few minutes to check email and texts. I listen to the news on TV and I check social media but when 8:30 AM rolls around everything goes dark: I turn off my mobile, my laptop and the television. All are off limits until 12:30 PM.

This Monday morning “Me” time is a time to think, to write, to clean the house, or work on projects that I have put off; it is also a great time to prepare for the week ahead. Implementing the Konmari method, creating a vision board, or simply paying bills – there is always something I’ve been procrastinating about that can easily be addressed on a Monday morning.

A change in my attitude – “I control the day; the day does not control me” made it very easy to set this time aside to reset and refocus each week. The overall feeling of accomplishment and productivity is positive energy that easily carries me through the rest of the week.

At 12:30 PM, when the media is switched back on, all the email, social media posts and text messages are waiting there patiently. The world did not end, the earth did not stop spinning and all is good in my little world.