If you’re unfamiliar with the term ‘Sunday Scaries’ then you’re in the fortunate minority. However, the regal Urban Dictionary describes it as, “the feeling of dread knowing that Monday is going to be rough.”

The word ‘motivation’ is used too often and incorrectly. It is spoken and heard contextually to bestow upon, as if it were a tool or a skill that can be passed on or gifted in times of need. Motivation comes from within. Its linguistic root is in the latin ‘movere’ which roughly translates ‘to move, provoke or arouse.’ While others can certainly spark a fire through encouraging a person, there must be desire for there to be motivation. No one else can force you to want anything. This is why love and desire are so enigmatic.

Inspiration is different. Inspiration’s [not entirely] alternate definition of ‘the drawing in of breath’ piques a revelation. Inspiration is the vehicle that transports divine value from the realm of the unknown into the soul. It is the fabric of dreams. It is how we describe the holiness of religious texts. It is the white hot fire that surpasses desire and assumes responsibility. Inspiration is the purpose underneath the desire that motivation is ever-dependent on.

Whatever your reason for fearing Monday morning, whatever your anxieties and fears, whatever duties lie in wait this morning, there is only one commendable way to approach it. This is not an attempt to negate, judge, or condemn the emotions surrounding the Scaries, but an introduction to a deeper and more pragmatic strategy to wrestling that anxiety.

This problem of inevitable impending adversity has been answered by many men and women of much greater intelligence and perspective than I, one of those being Winston Churchill. He has recently taken on a new criticism in death, but I believe he will forever be regarded as a great man. Try to allow his words to encompass the theme this morning as they have for myself: “The earth is yours and the fullness thereof. Be kind, but be fierce. You are needed now more than ever before. Take up the mantle of change. For this is your time.”

“The earth is yours and the fullness thereof. Be kind, but be fierce. You are needed now more than ever before. Take up the mantle of change. For this is your time.”

— Winston Churchill

I’ve contemplated this quotation for years now and have yet to think of a single human that could not receive it in any way less than invigorating, motivating or inspiring. In the coming weeks, I will aim to follow in Churchill’s footsteps. Thus: Monday Morning Mantle.

So, today and every Monday, welcome the morning, hail your duty, receive your inspiration, take up your mantle.