How to defeat Monday

It's Monday...again.

*Deep sigh*

Am I the only one who wakes up on Monday morning wishing we could skip Monday and go straight to Wednesday?  I'm talking "do not pass go; do not collect $200" type of skip it.

Leave no traces of Monday behind.

I don't think I'm the only one.

Good news.  Monday is not invincible.  As much as she tries to be a badass, she can be brought to her knees with a swift kick in the groin (this works on males & females, btw)

Here's how.

Always look for the positive.

I bet you were hoping for something profound and insightful.  Or maybe you were hoping I'd reveal some kickass ninja secrets to beat down this day.  #sorry

Besides, I don't reveal my ninja secrets.  Are you kidding me?

Actually, it is profound.  We often get so caught up in how much Monday is going to suck that we don't notice the good things.

Monday morning traffic in Atlanta usually sets the tone for the rest of the day for me.  I mean seriously, who wrecks their car at 6:30 in the morning and backs up traffic for 20 miles?  But it happens every Monday.

Today was no exception.  As I sat in my car, staring at the bright red brake lights in front of me and tow trucks removing totaled cars from the shoulder, a strange voice I'd never heard before whispered in my head.

"At least that wasn't you."

There it was.  That seemingly unprofound statement that changed the way I look at Mondays.  Sure traffic sucks.  But I didn't wreck my car.  I made it to work on time.  The extra thirty minutes I had to give myself in order to get to work allowed me to see the sunrise over the city of Atlanta.

Look for the positives.

It's Monday.  I have a ton of work to do.  I have edits to make in my book.  There aren't enough hours in this week and my hair is doing this weird frizzy curly thing that it's never done before.  And it took me 20 minutes to decide what black top matched up perfectly with my black pants.

But guess what.

Starbucks didn't mess up my coffee.  I found a missing pair of heels in my trunk. And this tops makes my boobs look awesome.

#positves

Baby Don't Cry

Baby Don’t Cry - 2Pac & the Outlawz

I needed to hear this more than anything today.  When I’m going through something serious, as I am now, music helps keep me sane.

I know I talk a lot about Jimi Hendrix and John Mayer, but Tupac Shakur was the very first artist whose music I felt could change a thought or feeling that I had.  Jimi and John came later but 2Pac…

well, there are no words.

He was the first to tell me not to give up.

Baby please don’t cry, you got to keep your head up
Even when the road is hard, never give up
Baby don’t cry, you got to keep your head up
Even when the road is hard, never give up
Baby don’t cry, I hope you got your head up
Even when the road is hard, never give up {never give up}
Baby don’t cry, I hope you got your head up {never give up}
Even when the road is hard, never give up
Baby don’t cry

There's a John Mayer song for that

Nothing hit home harder for me than that.

Let's just say, I've lost focus.  Up until 1 hour ago, I was ready to just throw in the towel and say "Fuck it".  The words of unsupportive people kept echoing in my head.  With so much riding on a dream AND so much work to do, I just didn't think I could do it anymore.  Too overwhelmed for words.

Near tears, head in hand, I sat staring at my computer screen, praying that something...just one thing would come to mind. Something to write, tweet...say that would make me feel like all is not lost.

Frustrated beyond belief at the silence in my head, I got up to take a shower.  I turned up "the Black one" and showered, letting JM play all throughout the house.

Then I remembered this song.  This is my "get it together" anthem.  It brought me back to where I need to be.  I'm not going to give up.

Follow the Sound of Your Calling

“Everybody’s life has lines in it…chapter marks. Everybody’s life has chapter marks. Some people’s chapter marks in their life…some of them are really good.  Some of them remind you of a time when everything went really well or some of them remind you of a time when it didn’t go well or maybe it didn’t go well at first and then changed you and things went even better than they were before.  And there was a line in my life when I was 19 years old when I said to my guitar, almost literally “you know better than me. And therefore, I’m going to follow you wherever you take me” and I’m going to trust this guitar.  And I’m gonna trust this guitar.  I’m gonna trust this guitar.

And if that takes me to sleeping on a pool table, or if that takes me into a bout of loneliness I never saw coming…well, I’m gonna still do that because I think I have a calling.  And I know…and I know… and I know …that I traded certain things as a human being, I know that I did.  there are certain parts of my brain that will never be the same, certain parts of my brain that are now converted to being able to do things on this level, that are at the expense of being able to do things on a somewhat of a more docile human level.

But I know…but I know…that is the very making of a calling! Callings are not perfect.  When you have a calling, you have to give a lot up to follow the calling.  That’s why it’s called a calling…BECAUSE THE SOUND COMES FROM FAR AWAY!

And you have to follow the sound of your calling. And it’s one of the hardest things in the world to do.  It’s the reason the world is full of really talented people who didn’t go try it, and that’s okay. But to the people who hear the ringing of the bell of the calling…that sound that they have to follow, you will have to give up certain parts of your life.  And yes, I have given up certain parts of my life to follow this sound and I have found a beautiful thing in it.

On a night like tonight, I need to thank you, for making this journey feel so unbelievable and so unbelievably worth the trip and the getting lost and the found and the lost and the found on the way to figuring out what my true calling is.  I would never ever ever ever trade this back again for the rest of my life.  I love this all, thanks to you.

Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you” - John Mayer, 3/12/10 - Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio

***************

Back in March 2010, when I heard this, I drove to work with tears streaming down my face.  I had an idea for a book which I thought could be my best work…if I decided to write it.  Then I heard this.  I know I can write and I know I have a calling to change lives through words.  I’ve just been to scared to act on it, to make the sacrifices that following it would require to follow that calling.

I credit John Mayer for alot of things that have happened in my life.  His music takes my mind to where it needs to be.  But this wasn’t music…this was a message.  I wasn’t there that night, but I felt like he was talking to me.

A month later, I started writing Untitled* and yesterday I finished it.  While this may not be the book that changes people’s lives, it is the first step.  Writing this book was difficult because for the first time, I made the sacrifices that needed to be made, I gave up the things I needed to in order to follow the “ringing of the bell of the calling”.

Was it worth it?  No matter what happens, yes.  It was.