Well, folks, it’s Monday again. What happened to the weekend? Well, that depends on what you consider your “weekend”. Not everyone works 9-5, M-F. Plenty of people have alternate schedules that include nights, traditional weekends, days off during the traditional work-week, and all-around odd, crazy work hours and schedules. So maybe today isn’t your “Monday”. Perhaps today is your “Friday”. If so, congratulations! If today is your “Wednesday”, I give you my condolences. Mid-week is tough.
That said, I hope you have chosen a job that you like if you work, or a hobby that you enjoy if you are a student, unable to work, or retired. If, for some reason, you hate your job, have a rotten boss, don’t have a hobby you can get into, or are otherwise miserable, I would highly recommend that you change your situation. This can change your mood, which can change your life. We all have one life. Enjoying it is very important, because in enjoying life, we can accomplish some spectacular things, both for ourselves and for the rest of mankind.
First, ask yourself when the last physical you had was. Maybe it’s time for a physical and time to tell your doctor how you’re feeling not only physically, but mentally as well. A lot of people going into the fall and winter months can suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, which is a lack of certain neurotransmitters due to less sunlight during these seasons that can make you depressed. That’s not your fault! You can get help for it, though, and your doctor is a great person to ask about your moods if they seem to have changed lately, are changing currently, or change regularly about this time of year. Even if there is no predictable pattern to mood changes, it may simply be a matter of telling your doctor about how you’re feeling emotionally and getting your biochemistry straightened out with a bit of medication or diet or exercise – doctors can prescribe a lot of things. Being on medication for your mood isn’t an attack on your character or a slam to your sanity. It’s a physical process, just like the way your heart beats, and if you had a problem with your heart, you’d certainly get help right away and you wouldn’t feel embarrassed about taking heart medication. It’s the same deal with your mood. It’s important to make sure you’re healthy. Odd schedules and hours exacerbate mood problems in general, so make sure you’re monitoring your health in its entirety.
Next, if there’s something you want to pursue in life because you’re passionate about it, go for it! It’s probably going to take time, effort, money, patience, tears, joy, and the whole mix, but that’s why I began with telling you to make sure you’re good to go with your health to begin with. Pursuing dreams is a process, just like survival, and if you’re going to survive the journey, you have to train for it. Start small. Maybe you want to become great at calculus. You have to begin with arithmetic, progress on to algebra, then to geometry, again onto some advanced algebra, then through trigonometry, then through precalculus, and finally, you’ll get into some introductory calculus and finish with some advanced calculus. If you’re learning calculus for engineering and science-based physics, then you’re going to go through a progression there, too, and it moves on in journey-like fashion. It doesn’t happen all at once. It takes a lot of work, sometimes a lot of heartache, and you might feel like quitting. It’s at this point that you need to reevaluate your goals. Is it worth it? Do you feel it in your soul? These are tough questions with even tougher answers sometimes.
Third, ask yourself why you’re doing a certain thing. Are you doing it for yourself? Are you fulfilling your own expectations, or are you trying to fulfill someone else’s expectations for you? Are you trying to please someone else at the expense of your own happiness and well-being? Sometimes others can push us to be better, but sometimes we get pushed away from our own hopes and dreams, too. Think about what you want for your one life that you get to live, and go after it. I’m not saying it’s going to be pretty, but I am saying that you’ll be glad you did it if it’s a worthy goal. Only you can decide what that worthy goal (or goals) happen to be for your own life. Don’t let others strip you of your potential, though. And if you’re lazy, get up off your butt and do something with your life! When you’re old and you look back on your life, it’s going to be a lot easier to live your golden years if you actually at least attempted to reach your goals in life!
So, it’s Monday again. Start over. And make it count, okay?
CLIMBING 4 THE REST OF US 