Expectations are strange things. If I expect Mondays to suck, they generally do, and over time more so. If I spend a few minutes on Sunday evening contemplating what a great day Monday may be, my Monday seems to start in a very different way, filled with the soft quiet of unfulfilled potential rather than with the dread of ‘if this, then what else follows?’ It is a nice difference (and I owe a dear loved one a ‘thank you’ for the suggestion). It also got me thinking about expectations and how a pleasant surprise can turn a day around.

Would you like to get in on the ground floor of some fun with me? It’s along the lines of upsetting expectations, and altering our reality for the better, and it’s easy and doesn’t cost anything but a moment of will and your time, and all the choices are yours! Here is how it works – be just a little nicer on Mondays. That’s it. So many of us expect really awful Mondays. We go back to work after a weekend that always feels too short, or we wake up with the knowledge that we are among those who could be working but are not, or any one of a near infinite number of life scenarios – many of which include the expectation that ‘Mondays suck’. So, to join in on this fun, we’ll be re-wiring Mondays! Treat your fellow man just a little nicer today than you might ordinarily, and see where it takes us all. It doesn’t have to be ‘let me buy your lunch’ big, either, and you don’t have to tell a lie or compromise your values – just handle each interaction in the most pleasant way you know how. Exercise what you understand about kindness, mercy, compassion, friendliness, hospitality, graciousness, good manners, helpfulness, patience.. hey, pick one and just do that! I don’t see a goal labeled ‘perfection’ on this anywhere, the word I keep using is ‘fun’.  Why ‘fun’? Because that is how I hope to appreciate the day today, any time my efforts result in an unexpected smile from another person, or a moment when it is obvious that their Monday is just a little better than they expected. If enough of us do it, what happens to what we all expect of Mondays? If it gets to be a widespread practice, how awesome would that be? How amazing to build a reputation as a culture for treating people well? We could do that, one day of the week at a time.  It’s a choice.

Ideally, of course, we couldn’t have this conversation at all. The very idea that it would come up as a suggestion is a little… well… it doesn’t say great things about who we have become as ‘civilized’ beings, does it? That there is room to suggest our world could be a better place with so little effort is rather…sad. Still, the good news there is that it actually will take very little individual effort to make our world a better place, to improve our culture, to improve our quality of life experience, even to make Mondays great days to look forward to. Small steps, and simple ideas, are not a bad starting point for change.

Today I am taking on Monday very differently.  I wonder what it will be like? I mean, after all… we are each having our own experience…