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Welcome back to Thank God It’s Monday!
tl;dr For us to succeed in anything over the long term, we must dream ambitiously, plan incrementally, and execute relentlessly.
312 weeks ago, we were all frustrated, uncertain, and perhaps despondent about what our futures held. We were four months into the COVID-19 pandemic, with no clear timeline or expectation of when life would return to “normal.”
The abrupt upheaval of routines strengthened certain relationships and ended others. Some jobs revolutionized what was possible, and others became obsolete. Many individuals used the time to reflect on what they wanted their lives to look like, and others used it as a sabbatical from life. I’m sure, regardless of how you spent those months, looking back on them feels like a fever dream.
Despite running on fumes halfway through the first semester of PA school, I recall feeling like I had a bigger purpose that I wasn’t fulfilling. I had spent years with patients and clients, studying personal development, medicine, and mindset, all for what? The longing for social connection and feeling like I had something valuable to share became inescapable. And so, Thank God It’s Monday was born.
312 weeks ago, I wrote Why Things Will Never Be the Same, and Why That Could Be Good (check it out here). I had no brand, no plan, and no vision. But I knew I had learned a thing or two along the way about the journey to becoming the best version of myself, and hoped I could help someone else on their way, maybe even prevent them from making some of the mistakes I’ve made. So I texted a few friends, asked them for their emails, and hit send. And here we are 312 weeks later, with a few more wonderful humans joining the community along the way, all learning together about how we can be the best versions of ourselves.
Who was I to think I could have a newsletter? Who did I think I was planning to write TGIM every Monday, with two years of PA school on the horizon? I don’t think I was confident at the time, knowing what would come of it or if it would last. But I knew I had big plans to help others, and that was enough to start.
My plan was (and still is) to take TGIM one Monday at a time. I don’t need to know what the next six months, years, or decades are going to look like. But I know I can commit to one more Monday, trying to help quell some Sunday scaries. I hope to change the bad reputation Mondays don’t deserve, and that’s only going to happen, one Monday, and one person at a time.
And I know I can execute on that plan because no matter what life throws at me (today happened to be my computer kicking the bucket mid newsletter, RIP). But breaking big, audacious goals into a two-hour weekly commitment makes them much more digestible. As they say, you know how to eat the proverbial elephant.
Writing TGIM for 312 weeks in a row has built my confidence in myself, fostered my love of writing, and fortified my integrity, knowing I will always live up to my word of doing what I say I’m going to do. Sometimes that may have more typos than others, but it will get done.
More importantly, TGIM has given me a community of like-minded people who want to be better. It continues to restore my faith in our little corner of humanity that there are people who want to be the good in the world. So thank you endlessly for that.
We are capable of starting over every day. Each week is an opportunity for us to leave the past behind, discard maladaptive habits, and adopt more fruitful ones. Mondays get a bad rap for no good reason (if you work anything besides a 9-5 Mon-Fri, you know), and spending your whole life dreading them, you’ll have wasted roughly 14% of it.
If you’ve been on the TGIM journey since the beginning, thank you for bearing with me through the growing pains. And if you’ve joined somewhere along the way, I hope you’ve gained something that makes you grateful, curious, or more resourceful.
I hope we can all remember to be appreciative, even on Mondays, or try to work on it, since we’re all a work in progress. And it means the world to me each time someone resonates with a message, learns something new, or replies with input, encouragement, or a question. So thank you from the bottom of my heart, whether you’ve read all 312 TGIMs, if you open it once in a blue moon for a pick-me-up, or if this is your first time, welcome to the community.
I can’t wait to see what the next year brings, and know that if you dream ambitiously, plan incrementally, and execute relentlessly, you’ll be able to look back on six years of progress too on what you’ve built.
If you found some value in this, please share it with a friend you think would enjoy it! And let me know if you’d like to be added to get TGIM.
This week, my podcast recommendation is from Paul Levitin’s Change Made Easy, “Get Creative: Making Change That Last.”
With that, thank you again for being a part of TGIM in some way. I hope this next year brings even more growth, challenge, and insight for us all.
Until next time,
Shannon
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