It's Monday. I saw someone this morning taking my kids to school, "Good morning! How are you?" I asked. "Ugh... hanging in there... Mondays you know??" they offered back.

Personally? I love Mondays. It's a fresh week, a fresh start, and a fresh set of opportunities to create impact, connect with people, and--wherever things aren't humming, redesign.

My first call this morning with a client was peppered with a blend of... "I'm worried about... I'm so busy... I have no idea how we're going to avoid ___ ... We don't want... "

The language and framing was constrictive vs. expansive--and not leaving a lot of room for breath or wisdom--so we gently reframed... "I'm aware of... My schedule has a ton of great stuff on it, AND I want to re-direct it a bit... I know we can figure out how to get to ___ if ____... We do want..."

The lens we look through has a huge impact on how we see the world, how we see people, our self-imposed (or other-imposed) stress levels, how much energy and excitement we have for engaging, what we do, and ultimately the results we get. Language and framing is essential here--and bonus, they support each other!

Here are 7 reframes and language tweaks to help you get more mileage out of your "Monday" (whatever "Monday" means for you). Use these to not only shift your own internal state on how you feel and what wisdom you have access to, but also to shift the way you show up, what you do, and ultimately the results and impact you have.

1. Say/hold "I GET to" or "I WANT to" as opposed to "I HAVE to".
2. Say/hold "I'm AWARE of" or "I'd LIKE to address" as opposed to "I'm WORRIED about".
3. Say/hold "I'm RICHLY SCHEDULED" or "ON PURPOSE" or "FOCUSED" as opposed to "I'm BUSY - oh so BUSY!"
4. Say/hold "I'm going to CREATE a great day" as opposed to "I HOPE I'm going to HAVE a good day".
5. Say/hold "How MIGHT I be contributing to this situation not being what I want it to be?" as opposed to "This sucks, it's all their fault, they're DOING this TO me".
6. Say/hold "I WANT xyz to happen" as opposed to "I DON'T WANT abc to happen".
7. Say/hold "What's the LITTLEST thing I can do here to move forward?" as opposed to "This is IMPOSSIBLE, I don't even know where to start".

These are only 7 examples, and off the top of my head this morning... what are some of your favorites that work for you? Go for it.

Here's to Showing Up, making Mondays rock, and making really cool stuff happen with our lives. X

More on mindset and "Mental/Emotional Energy" in section 2 of the book Contagious Culture: Show Up, Set the Tone, and Intentionally Create an Organization that Thrives

This article first appeared on Inc.com on May 9, 2016.

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