Today on temenos circle I have decided that the new Monday tradition commencing the week is to declare it Mindful Monday. In some ways Monday’s are the worst day of the week. You are typically coming down from the weekend high. You drag yourself to your desk and begin with the dreaded to do list. It is not bad enough when the “do-do list” (my new name for it, a.k.a shit list) still has leftover tasks from last week. Seriously the most depressing way to start the week. I do not know about the rest of you readers and writers but my do-do list never seems to end.
As I think back to the many ways I cataloged the do-do list the strategies were endless. In the 70’s, there was the MEAD Spiral Subject Organizer that included a large print calendar for each week. In the late 80’s we were all sporting leather-bound, Franklin Covey Day Planners signing on to the new religion of “The & Habits of Highly Effective People.” Now in the 1990 let us not forget the first electronic rendition of the Palm Pilot. I do not remember much about my first Palm Pilot but my favorite function was syncing appointments with other users in a “Beam me up Scotty sorta way.” Finally after a few other paperback versions of calendars and systems to organize us, the grand daddy of all organizers was born, the I Phone, June 29, 2007. As you know the I Phone carries with it the super system designed to help us manage our lives. Maps, phone, text, apps, music, movies, world-wide web and a perpetual calendar that is like the marriage of planning, “Until death do you part, or at least until the battery runs out!”
So why this exhaustive history lesson of calendars and planning tools in a blog about mindfulness. The wildest thing happened to me today that i am sure has happened to some of you before. My password expired to log into my computer at my job, expired and I lost all access to my calendar until I could get someone to create a new sign in for me today.
I went off the deep end. I freaked out, then terror-stricken to the point of a full-blown panic. I had no access to the do-do list, no access to emails, no access to my calendar and by God, I did not know what time or where my 7:00 a.m. meeting would be held. I knew a meeting was schedule but no idea when or where.
Panic and paralyzed I remembered a mindful strategy that I had read the other day which said, “Stop and take a minute to ease into your day.” Are you kidding me, I am will be fired. I have no idea where I am going and no access to my calendar or do-do list. I thought, “Stop and take a minute to ease into your day.” “Stop and take a minute to ease into your day.” I found myself repeating this over and over in my thoughts. I had a choice at that point to continue being panic-stricken, overwhelmed and pissed off or I could move on, change my negative thoughts and experience a different result. All this is possible by being mindful. The strategy is to be mindful of my thoughts, how I feel and not allowing the situation to take over my destiny. I am in control, I am the captain, I am in charge, the boss of who I am and what I feel. Me, the CEO of me. Put down the smart phones and swap out SMART GOALS for DUMB GOALS (dreamy, unrealistic, motivating and bold goals) and control company.me today. Mindful Monday is the habit needed to shake off the weekend leftover feelings and embrace the week ahead’s opportunities. If we keep doing or thinking the same negative thoughts, we will get the same results, guaranteed. I hope you find your own temenos.
Merry Mindful Monday
TEMENOS CIRCLE 