Small Changes... Big Changes


Monday BART

Monday gets a bad rap. What did Monday ever do to make it so hated?  Why do we say things like “I can’t believe Monday is here?”

Oh, I get it, you have to go back to work, a job you hate so much. My question is if you hate it, why are you there?  “I’m stuck.”…  When you say you are stuck, what you are saying is you don’t have the desire or drive to force a change.  If you want a change in your life, MAKE IT.  There is literally NOTHING stopping you.

My wife recently said she wasn’t happy at work, wasn’t getting exactly what she wanted out of it. But you know what she did, something most of us don’t, or what most of us are too scared to.  She actually put herself out there.  Was she scared, yup.  Was she uncertain of how this change would affect our family, yup.  I knew any job she went for she would have a good shot at.  My wife is super smart, and her qualifications are probably unmatched in her field of expertise.  She was offered a job on both the interviews she went on, but that is beside the point.  She just did it.  She had a million reasons to stay at her job.  She had a dream schedule, where she could be around for the kids, and also left herself time to work on her passion which is teaching dance.  But, something didn’t sit right with her and she just told me she needed a change.  She didn’t compromise and say that she would suck it up; she said she was changing and that we needed to talk as a family and figure out the next steps.  The kids and I could see that she needed it, and while it might be a little bit tougher on all of us with the change, we could see in her eyes that it was important.

Work isn’t meant to be a shitty thing you have to do. You should be getting something out of it.  Do I have a glamorous job that I can’t get enough out of?  No, definitely not, but it provides me with exactly what I need.  A decent pay, and a work from home option I can use when needed.   It is there so I can be flexible when my wife starts her new job and is trying to figure out her spot in a whole new environment.  If kids are sick and need to miss school or something, I can jump in.  So that is where my joy comes in.  I don’t enjoy it all, but I can see, or I can focus on the good.  Seeing the good helps get thru the bad sometimes.

My wife is super inspiring, for which I will write a billion more stories about. She been by my side for a long time.  In fact, when I write or think about stories from my childhood I often picture her in the background.  We didn’t meet until 16 or so, but I always see her in those memories.  I guess that is what happens over time.  You put the people you love in those thoughts, constantly weaving in and out of your memories.

So, when you wake up and think about Monday being the worst day ever, don’t just say it. Act on it.  My wife woke up, said Monday’s suck, and then made a change on her own.  She took a new job, one that excites her.  And the best thing is now she knows for sure if she needed to, she could do it again.  She changed her Mondays.  She took her negative environment and flipped it upside down.  I do that lots of times with my words, she did it in real life!  Made a real change to make her Monday into something that doesn’t make her want to hit the snooze button 10 times for.  Surround yourself with people that inspire you, people that make you smile.

My kids are incredibly lucky.  They get to see someone who it looked like had given up, someone who was resigned to this unhappiness just being her life, completely change, and come back to life.  They got to see what it is like to be a strong woman.  Inspiration is everywhere! Sometimes, if you are lucky like me, it sleeps in the bed next to you (when the kids decide to sleep in their own beds).

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