As the weekend comes to an end here in India, it is Monday tomorrow. That got me thinking about Monday blues. Monday blues can be referred to as the low-spirited, cool, annoyed, sad, unlucky mood of those workers, students, or employees who feel that a mundane, difficult, unexpected Weekday is arriving to force them into going back to work, killing their joys and annoying them.
This got me thinking about myself. How do I feel as the sun sets on Sunday? How do I feel about the rapidly approaching week? Am I excited or am I also having the Monday morning blues?
What I understood was very simple. If I have Monday morning blues, I am clearly not enjoying whatever I am doing. If I were really passionate about what I do, I would be excited to jump off the bed at 5:00 a.m. in the morning. Am I?
We have this life to live to the fullest. Do we really want to live a life that we are not satisfied with? Earl Nightingale, the famous radio host, says that the opposite of courage is not fear. Rather it is conformity. Why do we live a life conforming to others' expectations, aspirations, conditions? Why do we conform to what the society and institutions impose on us? People who preach they have it all figured out; have they? IF they really did, would they not be at peace rather than letting their mind get tossed around like a ship engulfed in a storm? Nobody has figured anything out! At least not for everyone. We have to figure out things for ourselves!
We live in an age where being a YouTuber conveys a promising career. We live at a time and age where technology might be at the most advanced stage ever known to man. Then why limit ourselves? Let us explore.
The day we realize that this is not the way we want to spend our lives is the day we start setting standards for ourselves. Let us not go through life. Let us grow through life. Either we can keep searching and find what we are really passionate about or we can become passionate about what we are doing. The former may not be easy but the latter is relatively easier. How do we do that? We develop passion for something when we get really good at it. When we achieve mastery. That is where Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hours comes into play. If you practise a certain skill for 10,000 hours, you become an expert in that skill.
But is practise enough? No. It should be deliberate practise. Whatever you learn should be implemented in your day to day life. Otherwise it remains as knowledge and does not ripen to become wisdom. So whatever we choose to do, if we ask the right questions and put in deliberate practise, excellence is guaranteed.
The key is patience. Let us not chase things in life as if we are going to die tomorrow. This outlook is what leads to impulsive, irrational decisions. If we live as if we are immortal, the atman, we will stop chasing things like stray dogs chasing shiny cars. We will instead start making choices that will actually add value to our lives.
Let us not compare our journey with anyone else's. The battle of life is fought by you against your previous self alone. It is all about making improvements incrementally. When we look at each interaction in our life as an opportunity to learn something, we develop expertise without ever getting bored.
Let us celebrate Mondays for we and our loved ones have woken up to a new week of immense possibilities!