TGIF? WTF!?

“Thank God it’s Friday!” It’s a saying that is so entrenched into our popular culture that they even named a freaking restaurant after it! When you hear it, you have probably been conditioned to feel all googly inside just thinking about the weekend and all the wonderful, magical things you’ll do. You have suffered through a horrible Monday, you made it past hump day, you struggled on Thursday but you finally arrived at your destination: Friday! Yippee! These four words may seem completely harmless, but let me prove to you what a harmful statement TGIF can be:


First of all, “TGIF” implies that you’ve suffered all week long. Let’s be honest, the look on someone’s face when they say “Thank God it’s Friday” is usually one of tortured relief. It also indicates that the rest of your week was just a means to an end, and that the other four weekdays are nothing but a treacherous obstacle course on your way to Friday. It also implies that the day at the opposite end of the spectrum is miserable: Monday. By saying “TGIF” you start every Monday with the attitude that this day is going to suck--no matter what you do. (You even start wallowing in how bad it’s going be on Sunday night!) But even when your beloved “ TGIF” comes around again, that only gives you 48 hours until you must suffer the drudgery of Monday once more, and the endless cycle repeats itself week after week, month after month, year after year.

Let’s examine this a little closer: the reason Monday is perceived as the worst day of the week is only because it’s the first day of the work week. By itself, Monday is nothing to be frightened of. It’s not the boogey man, it doesn’t have claws or gnashing teeth; nor does it have any more hours in it than any other day of the week. The only strike Monday might have against it is that you need to play catch up because you were busy Friday daydreaming about your totally rad weekend and ignoring your work while running around exclaiming “TGIF!!” to everyone you meet. Why should Monday get a bad rap just because Friday decides to put off all the important sh*t!!?


“TGIF” is the battle cry for the boring and the repetitive. It’s a clear indication that you’ve chosen to be a passenger in life and not the driver. If you feel like being stuck on an endless treadmill of unfulfilled dreams, looking forward to one measly day a week, and repeating this process every seven days then you should make it your mantra. Otherwise, change your thoughts immediately about how you see each day, because each day has an equal opportunity to be the best day of your life. Somehow we have conditioned ourselves to feel and act differently depending on what day of the week it is. If this was serving us, I wouldn’t have a problem with it, but in most cases it isn’t.

Why can’t a Monday be just as good as a Friday? If you make a commitment to turning the days that you don’t like into days that you love, it just may turn your whole life around. Think about your least favorite day of the week. Do something to ease the pain on that day to change how you feel about it. If you can’t make your workload any lighter or your day any easier, reward yourself at the end of the day for a job well done, and do that every week. Treat yourself to a nice meal, a good workout, a long meditation or a massage. This will quickly change your dread to joy when that day approaches.

Now imagine this for a second if you can: there are no days of the week. No beginning, no end, no weekdays or weekends. Everyone works different days depending on their job, (which is increasingly prevalent by the way) and no day feels better or worse than the last. Days are numbered but not named. Does that change at all the way you would see your days? Hopefully it does, though I’m sure some yahoo will still say “Thank God it’s #7!”

I’ve created a list of some more popular but destructive quips that are ingrained into our daily dialogue. There are many more, but these are some of the most common. I’ve also added an alternative to each of these sayings. Feel the difference in your attitude when you repeat the latter instead of the former:


“Thank God it’s Friday!”
“Thank God for today!”
(Be glad you woke up breathing, not everyone did)

“That’s just my luck.”
“I make great things happen!”
(Yes, I believe in luck. I believe that we make our own)

“I’m my own worst critic.”
“I am my own best coach.”
(If you’re not a fan of you, who will be?)



“Life’s a bitch and then you die.”
“Life is magnificent!”
It’s a miracle that you’re here. You better recognize.


“Whoever dies with the most toys wins.”
“Whoever lives with the most joy wins!”
Forbes should have a list of the Top 500 Happiest people.

“I expect the worst to happen, that way, when something good happens—it’s a surprise!”
“I expect great things to happen, and on the rare occasion that they don’t, I ask myself “what can I learn from this?”
Did Michael Jordan expect the worst to happen? Does Tom Brady? Do Olympic athletes?
They expect to win. It doesn’t mean that they always do, but they do A LOT more often than not.

“When I’m not at work, I don’t even think about it.”
“I’m always thinking about ways to improve my talents!”
Being you is a 24-7 job, and there are ALWAYS ways to improve yourself. Make it a hobby.

“…Must be nice.”
“Good for you!”
Being truly happy for someone else is one of the greatest joys there is.

“We need to help our own before we help anyone else.”
“We can help others while helping ourselves.”
We’ll never be perfect. Should this mean we can’t help others until we are?


You might think I’m splitting hairs here, but one look at my head will tell you that I’m ill equipped to do that. What we tell ourselves about our lives becomes our reality. If we don’t closely examine what we say on a daily basis and observe how it impacts us we will keep repeating the same mistakes. So enjoy this Friday, but don’t make Monday the red-headed step child of the week. The amount of joy you have on any give day, month, year, or lifetime is not pre-determined. At any given moment it is up to you to take control and decide to make the day a good one. Stop believing that someone else is behind the curtain making it all happen. Who knows, the day might be right around the corner when we can discuss how joyously prosperous you’ve become over appetizers at “TGI Mondays?” I’m buying.