We’ve all been there….You enjoy a blissful, care-free Saturday. Your email was silent (or ignored). No surprise projects, no random client demand. You relaxed and enjoyed a mental break from work.
Then it’s Sunday morning and the dread sets in. It’s like Monday is a looming gauntlet, like a watery grave for a stubborn cat–don’t you dare make me get in there, GDI!
Many of my clients lose the majority of their Sundays to that Monday morning dread. “Sunday mourning.”
They spin in negative thoughts and mental sparring matches with their co-workers and clients. They imagine the worst case scenarios–
I swear to god if Associate Suck-Up stops into my office to brag about how he billed 20 hours this weekend, I am going to explode.
When Monday does come around, they are mentally exhausted and wound tightly, just waiting for an opportunity to prove their fears true and blow up on some unassuming victim.
Practicing law is no walk in the park, admittedly, but this Sunday torture is not helping the situation.
Is it useful to imagine the worst case scenario?
Is it helpful to anticipate a dumpster fire?
How is that benefiting you?
What impact is that having on your happiness, never mind your weekend?
What it’s like to sacrifice half of every weekend to your own mental torture?
It is nearly impossible to rationally examine any situation when you are overcome with negative emotions. Instead of thoughtfully examining our choices, we act with knee-jerk reactions from fear, overwhelm, or anger.
Our Sunday mourning feels so justified. We have all sorts of reasons why we feel anxious and depressed. The problem is that we can’t make a real assessment of any situation when we are frayed at both ends.
It’s certainly possible that your Sunday mourning routine is indicative of a need for a career change. BUT what is more likely is that you could change your career and find yourself swimming in the same Sunday Mourning pond.
When we find our brains overrun with negative thoughts about our careers, those thoughts are rarely isolated to that one circumstance.
They are often part of a larger belief system that will follow you no matter where you go or what you do.
I want to enjoy what I do for a living.
I just want to be happy in my job.
It shouldn’t be this hard.
I don’t want to do this anymore.
Thoughts like those will creep into other aspects of your life later on. The belief that your job and your life “should” be a certain way. You should be happy. Your career should be easier. The fact that you “don’t want” to do your job anymore matters. (It doesn’t!) Not wanting to do something is simply a thought. That thought will sidetrack anything you do. It is not helpful. Not wanting to do something does not mean there is a glitch in the matrix.
It likely means you are doing something hard.
Something that forces you to grow.
When you give credence to that thought “I don’t want to do this” you are allowing yourself to use the easy button. To avoid the growth. You are allowing your brain to become really skilled at NOT doing hard things.
None of these thoughts are good reasons to quit a job. They are thoughts you are choosing to believe. They are thoughts that open an escape hatch–an easy out. Cleaning up those thoughts will allow you to truly experience your job, unclouded by these judgments and burdensome beliefs. Then you can decide whether you want to do something else with your life.
Before you make any monumental decisions while in the despair of Sunday mourning, I challenge you to examine the thoughts and beliefs creating your misery. Those thoughts will go with you no matter what you are doing for a living.
“Where ever you go, there you are.”
You are really good at thinking those thoughts and you will keep thinking them even if you change the scenery.
What is it costing you? Have you allowed those thoughts to sabotage you over and over again?
This is the meat of my work with most of my clients. Many of them carry toxic thoughts and beliefs about how their lives “should” be. Thoughts that cause them tremendous pain and cost them their happiness. Working through those thoughts provides them with the peace and space to truly move on and transform their lives.
Want a reprieve? Try it out for free today.
Photo by Juan Pablo Serrano Arenas from Pexels
