Saumirah McWoodson

DISCLAIMER: I’m trying to find my writing voice again, and I simply want to get into the habit of blogging again as regularly as possible. With that: Know that these blogs that I’m writing in early 2022 are not (AT ALL) edited. I’m not going back and re-reading them for content or structure or even for punctuation. I just want to write. And I don’t mind if this writing is public. So there it is! Enjoy.

So I’m trying to get back to (what I dubbed in 2020) as my Monday Fundays. About 2 years ago, I decided that I’d never do any work for a “real job” (entrepreneurial stuff, content creation, and doctoral program work not counted in this) on Mondays.

As someone who used to get a major case of the Sunday Evening Blues (it’s a real thing – Google it.), I wanted to make that change in my life, since I had the privilege, power, and freedom to do so. I wanted to reclaim my Mondays.

Now, full disclosure (and kind of a tangent): I feel like my Monday Fundays REALLY began back when I was teaching my sweet kindergarten babies back in 2018-2019. We, completely coincidentally, had I think like 3 electives every Monday. I believe they had library time, music class, and 45-60 minutes of “exploratory play” (in a classroom that only contained big, soft blocks for building and a few regular Legos), and so being at work on Mondays (after getting through any of the mundane tasks) was just really FUN. It felt like a JOY to start my week off that way, and it made it seem like the rest of the week wouldn’t be all that bad.

So anyway, I began claiming Mondays for MYSELF back in 2020, and those were the days when I did all my Instagram Lives and began creating content for the rest of the week.

So yesterday, preparing to go hard with another day of creation, reflection, and working on my business, I was getting dressed and thinking about what songs I wanted to use for the TikTok videos I’d be recording in a bit. Suddenly, the ideas just started coming to me–simple movements I wanted to use and songs I had heard days ago (okay, so probably like a few hours prior because I’m always on TikTok or IG these days). I was so surprised because, a few minutes before THIS, I had felt very strongly a sense of, “UGH. I don’t feel like learning a new dance or recording myself doing it.” But as the ideas came in, naturally and effortlessly, I became excited to, once again, create.

This got me thinking about the way in which things simply tend to feel easier the more often we do them. For example, I was far from the perfect teacher (OKAY – DEBATEABLE! No false modesty here, ladies and gents.), but I felt pretty confident about most of my work and definitely about my efforts and I’d pretty frequently receive compliments from my colleagues (the ones who weren’t jealous of me . . . Oh wait, can I say that? Who’s reading this? LOL) about my systems, procedures, and creative ideas for teaching. And when I was running my children’s dance program, though I insisted on waking up every Saturday morning at 5:00 am to prepare for 3 to 4 hours of teaching class, I know that I truly didn’t need to do that. After nearly a decade of teaching dance classes for children ages 2 to 10, I had A LOT of experience and had done a lot of experimenting, so knowing what would and wouldn’t work in a dance class setting (and in different settings . . . in classrooms for after-school programs, in “alternative” environments like on a blacktop or in a field of grass, or in a studio space) came naturally to me.

I think it’s the same with creating content. I think it’s the same with creativity, too.

The more we practice, the better we get, and the more easily the ideas come. Also, the more we DO the more we know what will and WON’T work for the outcome at which we desire to arrive.

So there are some (rambling though they be) thoughts on this. Now, let’s get back to creating, shall we?