It seems the third Monday in January has been dubbed, ‘Blue Monday,’ because it is the point where people have likely reneged on their New Year’s resolutions.  In Canada, it’s also likely the case because we are usually experiencing the coldest week of the year.

Today is January 16th, and the freezing cold, ice and snow has been ousted by a far more temperate day.  Anyone who watches the Weather Channel or The Weather Network (Canada’s equivalent) will tell you that weather tends to drive our behavior.  All too often, it also determines our attitudes.

What if you were to decide that Blue Monday – the one time deal, or the one you wake up to every seven days – no longer has or needs to be blue?  What if you could determine that you’d wake up to a Happy Monday instead?  How would that change impact the feelings you have and the results you’d have that day?  Or for the rest of your life?

I could have had a Blue Monday today.  I had every reason to have one – the weather was still colder than I like it to be.  I’d a few business challenges that I’d rather not have had.  And it didn’t end up being the change my life or ‘set the world on fire’ kind of day I’d hoped it would be.

But I decided early in the day that regardless of what happened, that if I couldn’t have a Happy Monday, I would at least have a Good Monday.  That decision helped me salvage what might otherwise have been a close to wasted day (something that usually really bothers me).

The decisions we make at one point in the day can keep us moving more towards one or more of our goals.  If I had decided to give in to the all too easy feeling of having a Blue Monday, I can guarantee that I would have one.  I know probably would have felt so worn down that I wouldn’t have felt up to writing tonight.  But as I changed my own attitudes, the slow day morphed into one of possibilities, not limitations.  Not doing enough morphed into doing the right amount to set me up so that tomorrow I can make far greater headway because of what I actually did do today.

CONSIDER: When was the last time you had a Blue Monday?  How often do you have Blue Mondays?  And what is the primary reason that you do have them?  Home?  Work?  Job?  Problems?  How can you change your attitude so you’ll no longer have the feeling that these are problems?

Under what conditions do you let yourself cave in to the feelings that will keep you from doing what you know you have or need to do?

How do you feel when you get past this place and then keep moving forward, rather than sideways, backwards or in a full stop instead?

If you did have a Blue Monday, in January or at any other time of the year, please reconsider and change your day to what you want it to be, not what you’re letting it be.  That simple change can help you enjoy the day from here on.

And the good news is that tomorrow, you can do the exact same thing with much the same good benefits.

Happy Monday or any day of your choice.