Fifty-two Mondays.
Can you believe it?
We've reached Week 52 of Monday Morning Mindset!
When I started sharing these thoughts each Monday, I wasn't thinking about having 52 weeks of wisdom to share.
Actually, I'm not sure I have 52 weeks of wisdom.
What I do have is a lifetime of making mistakes, learning lessons, occasionally getting things right, and discovering that God apparently isn't finished teaching me yet.
And after 52 weeks, there's something I'm becoming more convinced of than ever.
It's amazing what can happen when you keep doing a little something, over and over again.
Which is rather fitting, because that's the message I've been leaving you with every Monday for the past year.
Little decisions.
Every day.
Building a legacy.
But sometimes I think we hear those words so often that we forget just how powerful they really are.
Thirty-Five Pounds Didn't Just Disappear
Let me tell you something that happened in my own life this year.
Since January, I've lost 35 pounds.
Now, wouldn't it be wonderful if I could tell you that I woke up one morning, stepped on the scale, and discovered that 35 pounds had simply disappeared?
I would certainly recommend that method if it worked.
Unfortunately, it doesn't.
Those pounds came off because of decisions made over time.
Not one big, dramatic decision.
Lots of smaller ones.
And not every day was perfect.
Some days were easier than others. Some days required more determination. And sometimes the results weren't nearly as encouraging as I wanted them to be.
But here's the thing.
The scale didn't have to change dramatically every day for something important to be happening.
I've also gotten my blood pressure under control, at least for now.
And I don't take that for granted.
I'm learning that taking care of ourselves isn't something we accomplish once and then cross off our list.
It's something we continue doing.
Day after day.
Choice after choice.
Now, I'm not sharing this because I've suddenly become an expert on health. I certainly haven't.
I'm sharing it because it's a reminder that meaningful change usually doesn't happen all at once.
And that applies to a whole lot more than the number on a scale.
Think About What Can Happen in 52 Weeks
A year can seem like a long time when you're looking ahead.
But when you look back?
It goes by remarkably fast.
Think about what could happen if you read just ten pages of a book every day.
That's 3,650 pages in a year.
Depending on the books, that could be a dozen or more books you might never have read otherwise.
What if you spent fifteen minutes a day learning something new?
That's more than 91 hours of learning in one year.
What if you spent ten minutes every evening giving your child your undivided attention?
No phone.
No television.
No distractions.
Just listening.
That's more than 60 hours of telling your child, without ever having to say the words, "You matter to me."
Now, not every important thing in life can be measured in hours or pages or pounds.
But those numbers help us see something.
Small doesn't mean insignificant.
Small things repeated over time can become something extraordinary.
I've Been Watching This Happen for Nearly Thirty Years
When Tomorrow's Promise opened in 1997, I certainly didn't have everything figured out.
I had a vision.
I had Montessori training.
I had a strong belief in what children were capable of learning.
And I had a whole lot left to learn myself.
I still do.
Over the years, our school grew.
One classroom became more.
One location eventually became three.
And now we're preparing for another chapter with our elementary school.
But none of that happened because of one magical moment.
It happened through thousands of ordinary days.
Children learning to recognize letters.
Teachers patiently demonstrating a lesson for the hundredth time.
Parents trusting us with their children.
Problems being solved.
Mistakes being corrected.
People showing up, even when the day was difficult.
And sometimes, simply having enough faith to take the next step without knowing exactly how everything would work out.
I've learned that the things we eventually celebrate are often built during days that don't feel particularly special.
Most of the time, we're building something important long before we can see what it's becoming.
Sometimes the Smallest Things Have the Biggest Reach
One of the things closest to my heart is our work with Dolly Parton's Imagination Library here in Walker County.
Think about the simplicity of that program.
A child receives a book in the mail.
One book.
Then another the next month.
And another.
A parent reads a story.
A child learns a new word.
Someone points to a picture.
A little voice asks, "Read it again!"
Nothing about that moment looks particularly dramatic.
But month after month, those books begin building something.
Vocabulary.
Imagination.
Connections between parents and children.
A love of reading.
And possibilities for the future.
Through Tomorrow's Promise Educational Foundation, we've now helped send more than 75,000 books to children in Walker County.
Not 75,000 books arriving in one great big delivery.
One book at a time.
One child at a time.
One month at a time.
And our work doesn't stop when the book arrives. We've also developed an educational email series to help families make the most of those early learning years.
Because giving a child a book is wonderful.
Helping a family build a habit of reading together can make that gift even more meaningful.
Sometimes changing a child's future begins with something as simple as reading a bedtime story.
The Teacher Is Still a Student
If you've been reading these columns for a while, you've probably figured something out about me.
I love learning.
I like figuring out how things work.
I like solving problems.
I like discovering possibilities.
And I can become so interested in something that I completely lose track of time.
I also have a tendency to start thinking about the next project before I've finished everything involved in the current one.
Apparently, having lots of ideas and having enough hours in the day to accomplish them are two entirely different things.
I'm still working on that.
But one of the things I've appreciated about writing Monday Morning Mindset is that it has given me a reason to stop and think about what life is teaching me.
Sometimes the lesson comes from something wonderful.
Sometimes it comes from a disappointment.
Sometimes it comes from a mistake I'd rather not have made.
And sometimes it comes from realizing that something I've believed for years might need a little reconsideration.
I don't want to reach an age where I believe I've learned everything I need to know.
What a terribly boring place that would be!
I want to keep asking questions.
Keep growing.
Keep discovering.
And keep allowing God to teach me things I didn't even know I needed to learn.
Sometimes You Don't Know You're Making a Difference
Something happened recently that really surprised me.
For the first time since I started Monday Morning Mindset, I've had three people tell me how much they've enjoyed these messages.
Now, that might not sound like a big deal.
But it was to me.
Because I'll let you in on a little secret.
There have been plenty of Mondays when I've wondered whether anybody was actually getting anything out of what I was sharing.
Was anyone listening?
Was anything I said making a difference?
Or was I just entertaining myself by sharing my thoughts every week?
And then, almost a year into this little adventure, three people took the time to tell me they were enjoying it.
One of those conversations especially touched my heart.
A woman had arrived early to be a guest on the show. She told me that she normally comes later, but this particular morning she'd gotten there early enough to hear my Monday Morning Mindset.
And she said that apparently she was supposed to hear that message, because it really hit home with her.
Now, I don't know what was going on in her life that morning.
I don't know what part of the message spoke to her.
But I do know what her words meant to me.
Here I had been wondering whether these Monday messages were making any difference at all.
And there was someone telling me that one had arrived at exactly the right time for her.
I couldn't help but smile at that.
Sometimes God has a way of sending encouragement when we least expect it.
And maybe that encouragement was something I needed to hear that morning, too.
It reminded me of something I've spent years teaching children.
Just because you can't see the progress doesn't mean nothing is happening.
When we plant a seed, we don't dig it up every morning to see whether it's growing.
We water it.
We give it sunlight.
We take care of it.
And we trust that something is happening beneath the surface.
I suppose these Monday messages have been a little like that.
Every week, I've shared something I was thinking about, learning, or trying to understand.
Then I sent it out into the world without really knowing whether it mattered to anyone.
And maybe that's how a lot of the good things we do in life work.
We don't always get immediate feedback.
We don't always see the results.
We don't always know whether we've helped.
But that doesn't mean we haven't.
I don't know how many people hear these messages or what they take away from them.
But I do know that three people took the time to encourage me recently.
And I'm grateful they did.
Because sometimes even the person doing the encouraging needs a little encouragement herself.
And there's another lesson in that.
If someone has made a difference in your life, tell them.
Don't assume they already know.
They might be wondering whether anything they're doing matters at all.
We Don't Always See the Difference We're Making
I've been thinking about that conversation ever since.
How many times have we done something kind without knowing whether it mattered?
How many teachers have spent years pouring their hearts into children without ever hearing what became of them?
How many parents have wondered whether the lessons they're trying to teach their children are actually getting through?
How many people have quietly helped someone, never realizing that a small gesture came at exactly the right moment?
Most of us will never know the full impact of the little things we do.
A teacher may never know which encouraging words a child remembers twenty years later.
A parent may not realize which ordinary family tradition becomes a treasured memory.
A friend may never know how much a simple phone call mattered.
A kind word might arrive on exactly the day someone needed to hear it.
And sometimes we may make a difference without even realizing we've done anything special.
That's one reason I believe it's so important to be intentional about the little things.
Not because every choice will produce some enormous, visible result.
But because we don't always know which small act of kindness, encouragement, patience, or faithfulness will matter most.
And we don't have to know.
We just have to keep doing what we know is right.
Your Challenge for the Week
Since this is our 52nd Monday together, I have two challenges for you.
First, look back over the past year.
Think about where you were one year ago.
Not just physically.
But emotionally.
Spiritually.
In your relationships.
In your habits.
In the things you were hoping to accomplish.
What's changed?
What have you learned?
What have you overcome?
What have you started?
What have you stopped doing?
And what are you still working on?
Don't overlook the little things just because they weren't dramatic.
Maybe you've become a little more patient.
Maybe you've learned to say no when you need to.
Maybe you've started spending more time with your family.
Maybe you've begun taking better care of yourself.
Maybe you've learned something new.
Or maybe you've simply kept going through a season that was much harder than you expected.
That counts too.
Then ask yourself:
What is one small decision I could begin making today that might change my life—or someone else's—over the next 52 weeks?
Not ten things.
Just one.
And then begin.
Second, encourage someone who has made a difference in your life.
Tell a teacher.
Tell a friend.
Tell a family member.
Tell someone who has encouraged you, helped you, or simply made your days a little brighter.
Don't wait until there's a special occasion.
Don't assume they already know.
Because I can tell you from personal experience that a few unexpected words of encouragement can mean an awful lot.
A Lesson I'm Still Learning
Robin Sharma's The Everyday Hero Manifesto reminds us that extraordinary lives are built through ordinary acts of courage, discipline, service, and personal growth.
I believe that.
But after 52 Mondays, I think there's something else I want to remember.
We don't have to become extraordinary people overnight.
We don't have to fix everything that's wrong with our lives by next Tuesday.
We don't have to have all the answers.
And we certainly don't have to be perfect.
We just have to be willing to keep learning and keep making the next good decision.
I think about those 35 pounds.
I think about the children who've grown up in our classrooms.
I think about the thousands of books that have found their way into little hands.
And now I think about a woman who arrived a little earlier than usual one morning and heard something she needed to hear.
None of those stories was built in a single day.
And none of them is finished.
Including mine.
Final Thought
As we celebrate 52 weeks of Monday Morning Mindset, I want to say thank you.
Thank you to Hello Huntsville for giving me the opportunity to share these thoughts.
And thank you to those of you who've taken a few minutes out of your Mondays to listen.
I hope something along the way has encouraged you.
Maybe challenged you.
Maybe made you laugh.
Or maybe simply reminded you of something you already knew but needed to hear again.
I know sharing these messages has made me think more carefully about the lessons life keeps putting in front of me.
And I hope we both keep learning.
Because here's what I want you to remember as we begin another year together:
A year from now, you're going to be somewhere.
You're going to have made hundreds of decisions.
You're going to have spent thousands of hours doing something.
You're going to have developed some habits and strengthened others.
And you're going to have influenced people, whether you realize it or not.
The question isn't whether those little choices will add up.
They will.
The question is what they'll add up to.
So let's make this next year count.
Not by trying to change everything tomorrow.
But by making one good decision today.
And another tomorrow.
And another the day after that.
And when you wonder whether those little decisions are making a difference, remember that sometimes the results are growing quietly where you can't see them.
Sometimes someone is being encouraged without you knowing it.
Sometimes the seeds you've planted are taking root.
And sometimes, if you're fortunate, someone will come along and tell you.
I'm grateful that three people did that for me.
And I'm looking forward to another year of learning together.
References
- Sharma, Robin. The Everyday Hero Manifesto. HarperCollins, 2021.
- Zechariah 4:10 — Do not despise small beginnings.
- Galatians 6:9 — Do not grow weary in doing good.
- Luke 16:10 — Faithfulness in little things.
- Proverbs 16:3 — Commit your work to the Lord.
- James 1:22 — Put what you learn into practice.
Remember... life isn't changed by one big decision. It's changed by the little decisions we make every day. Today's small choices become tomorrow's legacy. So choose wisely, love deeply, keep learning, and keep growing. Until next Monday, have a wonderful week... and keep building your legacy, one small choice at a time.