Mapping Your Week on Monday

Monday does not need to be coloured the traditional black or blue. We have so easily bruised it with our off-coloured perceptions. This day has been tainted with the premise of contusions where staff tenderly look forward only to Fridays – TGIF.

How would you like to look at Monday and the rest of the week with relish? Be careful what you wish for. The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy can turn your perceptions into reality. If you believe that this week would be long and arduous a climb for you, then it just might be one. We have the natural, neurological, ability to imagine whichever scenarios may turn out. Having worked last weekend in the Middle East, I viewed Monday as mid-week instead of the start of something unpleasant. You can reprogram your thoughts to be more positive.

Do you plan your week? Do you have a clear and big picture of how you will spend your valuable time with people, activities and tasks?

Get a fresh page of your journal and jot down what you would like to accomplish this week. List down the main tasks from the mundane to the must-do to the marvelous. The best part of having a list is to ‘tick it off’ after you have completed a task. It is like playing teacher, marking students’ scripts.

Consider the early part of the week as preparing for the weekend’s adventures and challenges. Steven Covey touted in his famous book ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ to ‘Begin with the end in mind.’ This weekend, I will teach a half-day workshop, and officiate an event (at *Scape Park) as part of my volunteer duties for the Singapore Sports Council.

Yesterday, I ran in a half-marathon and today was spent running errands and enjoying moments of reflection the race. I reviewed what I have gathered and experienced during my race, as well as the solid data I uploaded onto the GarminConnect website. I evaluated my efforts and determined the relevance of my tactics that led to my satisfying finish. Even if the race route was botched due to professional ignorance and my carelessness, I still considered it a very good training day. It was memorable because I ran alongside my friends and acquaintances, with very good runners and champions. Thanks to Poon who believed that I could set the race pace for him – I did, at least, for a while as the data showed.

As clichéd as it may sound: ‘Not everyday is a Sunday.’ This is because today and this moment matter as much as any other day. Enjoy your week with a sense of purpose.

Leadership Lesson: Plan how you would use your week; lead with your time. 

TGIF: 20 Things That You’ll Do Once In Your Lifetime*

1)    Bungy jump from a bridge (literally, jump off a bridge).

2)    Parachute from a plane in tandem.

3)    Ride a unicycle or pogo-stick (or was it a unicorn?).

4)    Win it big in a lottery (wishful thinking?).

5)    Go to Disneyland or a similar theme park for adults.

6)    Participate in a marathon (running, films, dancing).

7)    Eat a 12-course meal that includes creatures that used to walk, crawl or slither.

8)    Have a huge hangover (too much Red Bull and coffee) and live to regret it (and do it all over again).

9)    Get married in Las Vegas (or more often, if you need the practice).

10) Phone in sick, after you watched a marathon of films.

11) Burn a candle at both ends (?).

12) Eat hot tom yum soup in Phuket (the way locals love it) before your triathlon race.

13) Swim with the sharks without being eaten alive.

14) Swim in the sea during jellyfish season, and live to tell.

15) Write your book.

16) Take part in the Amazing Race. Get your partner to do the physical challenges, while you do the food challenges.

17) Ride on a wild animal.

18) Go white-water rafting.

19) Seat yourself in First Class of your favourite airline (upgrades allowed).

20) Join a secret society (but you can't tell anyone).

*This is a partial parody. Therefore, this is not to be taken too seriously. However, should you wish to consider any one of these suggestions, then what you will seriously do to ensure that it happens?

Leadership Lessons: It would be nice to joke about things. However, when a seed of suggestion has been planted, then it may germinate into a possibility. Possibility requires the fertile soil of purpose and planning to grow into reality. If you read about the parable of the seeds, you would be reminded of how environmental conditions matter if you want to ensure success in initiating and engaging things.