Thank God It’s Monday

This coming Monday is a national holiday (Labor Day), and many people have the day off. However, not everyone gets the day off, and many of you may not know the original intent behind Labor Day. The idea for Labor Day came from the organized labor front and came about because workers felt they were spending too many hours and days on the job (often seven days a week and often sixty hours or more a week). Today, things have changed, and most of you (if you’re employees) work five days a week and approximately forty hours a week. And yet, so many of you embrace the phrase “Thank God it’s Friday” and dread Mondays and going back to work.

Here’s my truth – work is not supposed to be drudgery and something to be endured. Labor Day now is intended to recognize and honor the American work force and work ethic, while giving us a day off for this honoring purpose. Are you honoring your work on Labor Day or just grateful that you’re not working?

I often work more than five days a week (by my own choice and based upon my commitments), and a sixty-hour work week is not unusual for me. As a result, I don’t have the typical concepts of Mondays, Fridays and weekends. Even so, I love my work and I look forward to a new work day, even if it might be long and challenging. What I know to be true is that our feelings about work are more about our perspectives on our work than about the work itself or our employers.

I’m not naïve – some of you (unfortunately) work in difficult working environments where your employers do not walk their talk about caring for and valuing their team members. And yet, your employers do not control your attitude about your work. While they and your environment can have an influence on your attitude, your attitude is your attitude.

How might your work life and work experience be different if you looked upon the coming work week with a view of “Thank God it’s Monday”— I’m blessed to have a job, to have an income and to do the work that I do? If you can’t find your way to this perspective, then it’s time for a change – either change things at work from the inside out or find another place of work. Sometimes it IS just that simple.

And before you fire back with your “you don’t understand my situation, Jeff,” make sure you first understand my situation (past and present) and the realities of having and sustaining your own business (a business I started from scratch with no financial foundation). My way is certainly not the only way, but I embrace “Thank God it’s Monday” for my life and my work, and that’s my choice. What’s your choice?