The Hustler’s Playbook: Friday People and Monday People

Friday People

Friday People can’t wait for the weekend. They can’t wait to get away from their jobs. They don’t enjoy their work enough to want to do any work outside of their scheduled hours. For Friday People, the end of the week is freedom.

Friday People think of their jobs as “the grind.” They dread Monday, they call Wednesday “hump day” to mark the halfway point of their week, and say “thank God it’s Friday,” to congratulate themselves for having survived another week at their job.

This doesn’t make non-hustler Friday People bad people. It mostly means that they don’t find joy in their work, that it doesn’t provide meaning in their life, and that it isn’t something that they feel connects to their greater purpose. But Friday People seek the wrong freedom.

Monday People

Monday People can’t wait to get back to their work. They enjoy their work and, instead of trying to escape their work, they’re excited by the prospect of another week of producing results.

Monday People don’t refer to their work as “the grind,” they don’t say they’re “living the dream,” and they don’t count the hours until Friday at 5:00 PM. Monday People count outcomes, not hours.

Monday People think of their jobs as their “work.” A job is something that someone pays you to do. Your work is something that you do because it is where you can make your contribution. It serves to help you live your purpose, and it helps give meaning to your life. Monday People find joy in their work.

The results you produce in your life are largely based on what you believe and the actions you take based on those beliefs. If you believe that work is something to be avoided, or tolerated at best, then you will produce a certain set of results. If you believe your work is something to engage your whole, best self in doing, that it is about purpose and meaning, you will produce a very different set of results. You will also experience a greater sense of happiness and fulfillment.

Hustlers are Monday People.

• Are you a Monday person?
• Have you fallen into the trap of thinking like Friday People?
• What kind of freedom do you really want?