What is A Monday Minute?
There has been so much buzz in the past few years about “finding your purpose”. You know, the whole… if you find work that follows your passion you never work a day in your life type stuff. Even so, there is a general feeling that people are dissatisfied with life. In 2022, more than 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. reported symptoms of depressive disorders. The U.S. ranks third for unipolar depressive disorders, just after China (which ranked No.1), and India. So many are lost, feeling tired, and wanting clarity and direction. “Finding your purpose” has become trendy.
A Monday Minute is the antithesis to hustle culture. It is about anti-hustle.
For too long, it’s been “cool” to always be busy. It had become a badge of honor, and in some ways in American culture, a sign of success. But during the pandemic everything changed, and the way we work drastically shifted. And with this change came an awakening to the true meaning of work/life balance.
So many experienced, or for the first time in their life, recognized burnout. The line between expectations and requirements became blurry as our boundaries between home and work were no longer as clear. And for many, the priority of disconnecting grew to the top of the “to do list”.
As with most things, the pendulum overshot in the other direction and Americans began giving their resignations at staggering levels in late 2021. According to the latest data released from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in April 2022, 4.4. million Americans put in their resignation letters. There was a shift from working hard for someone else to work hard for yourself — with new business applications rising — many walked away from stable careers, convinced there was no better time to chase their dreams.
To be clear, there isn’t anything overly problematic about the shift. If anything it aligns with the belief that life is a journey, and ups or downs are part of living.
The one exception being, the narrative that we owe it to ourselves to find our purpose. That we’re all due our big moment (cue the slow motion, serendipitous Rom-Com music). Call me a realist, but I just don’t think life is that way. It’s not one gigantic movie set where we are the main character.
I think we owe it to ourselves to decide what deserves main character energy, while still recognizing we are not always the main character.
Identifying the importance of time, and where and how we spend it, is a valuable lesson. And when it comes to hustling, like all things, I think there is a time and season for it. I’d even dare so far to say sometimes hustle is necessary. But for most, hustle harder or hustle every day is simply not sustainable. And for most, sorry to say, working for yourself is merely a pipe dream that will lead to the same burnt out feeling of that former 9-to-5.
Then what is anti-hustle? Why “a Monday minute”? It’s a version of #quietquitting. A Monday Minute is smelling the roses. Slowing down. Just as you’re recognizing you no longer need to subscribe to the idea that work needs to be your life. A Monday Minute is a reminder that finding your purpose is not a hill that you need to die on either. Time is one of few finite resources in your lifetime.
It is the notion that while we all may want a fulfilling and beautiful life —we need to be the keepers of our time and how we’re spending it.
We all deserve to feel fulfilled and aligned with our inner most selves. But it doesn’t need to be all or nothing, anti-9-to-5, or full on quiet quitting. In life, it is perfectly normal to feel periods of “imbalance” or out of alignment. The key is what we do in those moments or periods of comfort and discomfort. On A Monday Minute, we want to help you find-and define-your True North so life feels more like a ride you’ve chosen to be on. We want you to feel more moments that bring you joy and less why me or WTF?!? Join the community and start exploring today!
