Monday Motivation Had Other Plans

A commitment to show up and write my truth | Day 265 of 365

Yesterday I decided Monday needed better marketing. I'm not the first genius to think of this — "Magical Monday" is floating around out there plenty — but I went with it anyway: a fresh start, gratitude, new possibilities, the whole Monday motivation package usually reserved for people who sleep eight hours and remember to charge their phones before bed.

Past Me loved this idea so much she scheduled appointments, work calls, and just enough tasks to suggest Future Me had recently grown a second brain.

Future Me had not.

When Monday Motivation Runs Into an Actual Monday

I started the day with a plan. Then something urgent pulled me off it before I'd even finished my coffee.

I figured it would take a little while.

Adorable, really, that I believed that.

The urgent thing became the main thing, and the main thing quietly ate the entire day. Every time I thought I was close to done, it handed me one more small piece that needed attention. My color-coded calendar turned into decorative literature — something I'd written with good intentions and would never actually follow.

By the afternoon, I'd been running the whole day and had nothing to show for it. My list looked exactly as fresh as it had that morning. Nothing crossed out, nothing highlighted, not even one satisfying checkmark to prove I'd shown up for Monday at all.

That's when it hit me: Magical Monday had technically worked. It just didn't make my day better. It made it disappear.

The Work You Didn't Plan For Still Counts

If you've ever had one of these days, you already know the shape of it. You start with a tidy plan, something unexpected grabs you by the ankle, and somehow it's evening. You're wiped out, and your list is still sitting there, completely unbothered, like it wasn't even invited to your day.

My first instinct was to feel behind, like I'd failed some invisible test. Then I remembered what I'd actually spent the day doing — handling something that genuinely needed me, right when it needed me. That work didn't count for less just because Past Me hadn't seen it coming.

Some days the list runs the show. Other days the day itself takes a hard left, laughs at your plan, and doesn't leave a forwarding address. Both are still a day well spent, even when they don't feel like it in the moment.

Next Monday, I may try the rebrand again. This time with clearer terms and conditions. Magical Monday can keep its beautiful possibilities — it just doesn't get to make eight hours vanish without my permission.

About the Author | Day 265 of 365

I'm a soul-led coach, entrepreneur, mother, and recovering perfectionist, currently navigating healing, uncertainty, temporary chapters, motherhood, work, big transitions, grief, nervous system healing, overstimulation, emotional growth, and the ongoing lesson that life works a whole lot better when we stop trying to carry everything alone. Today that lesson looked like watching one urgent thing swallow my schedule whole and realizing that Magical Monday had, in fact, pulled off a trick — just not the one I ordered.

Day 265 of 365. Still adjusting. Still laughing. Still looking for where Monday put the time. 🐧