Thank Goodness It’s Monday: Reclaiming TGIF with MBA Thinking

Another day, another week, means another chance to apply MBA Thinking to your life and the lives of those around you.

I saw a delightful post from a rather smart, Adelaide GP and business owner, Dr Nick Tellis, on LinkedIn this morning entitled, Happy Mindset Monday.

He asked, “how many of you think TGI Monday?”

Of course, that stands for Thank God It’s Monday, and is a provocative flipping of the common phrase, Thank God It’s Friday, which is an expression of joy that the “working week” is over.

What Dr Nick was asking was, why can we not give thanks that a new week is starting?

This is the very embodiment of our core values here at The MBA School Of MBA Credentials (curiosity and momentum), and I’d like to build upon Dr Nick’s observations to arm you with a Swiss Army Knife array of sharp initialisms to help you cut through lethargy and habit and tease open opportunity.

Thank who?

Of course, we strive to be non-religious and non-sectarian in our work at the MBA School Of MBA Credentials.

So, before we begin our list, perhaps we should consider a substitute for the word, God?

As you’ll see in the headline, I have opted for Goodness but there are other alternatives.

For example, one could us:

• Grace
• Genius
• Grit
• Gallantry
• Growth
• Generosity
• Gold

How intriguing it will be for others to hear you say, Thank Growth It’s Monday.

Admittedly, some of these are not optimal but an MBA is always striving to think outside the package, so I have two other alternatives.

Thankfully it’s Monday. This is shorter than the original model and makes an initialism that’s a proper noun, TIM.

Monday, Thankfully. Shorter yet again and as any accountant or logistics manager will tell you, efficiency is everything. Mind you, they’d probably say Everything’s Efficiency!

Thank Genius It’s Monday – The sky’s the limit

We encourage all our students to adopt the mindset of curiosity and earnest application of MBA Thinking in all aspects of life, not just on weekdays.

This means the sky’s the limit when it comes to applying Dr Nick’s core message of adapting your perception of Fridays, Mondays, and work days.

Personally, I like nothing better than slipping out of my doctoral robes on a Saturday morning and mowing my lawn in a simple graduate gown with plain black mortarboard. And I don’t just mow the lawn randomly, I consult the International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management for the latest papers on Route Logistics to see if I can achieve optimum mow-to-completion times.

As a side note, I did find this article very helpful, Vehicle Routing And Scheduling Models, Simulation And City Logistics. Of course, I was applying it to lawnmowing but that’s what an MBA does; takes input and adapts it to the ideal context of output. If you’re curious, I took the modelling framework outlined by the authors, consisting of a Decision Support System, and rewrote it, replacing Customers with my good lady wife, Capacities Of Depots with the capacity of my clippings catcher, and Street Vehicle Routing with landmarks from my front and back lawns and its various obstacles.

So, my final thought is this. If you are truly living the MBA Life with zest, every waking (and even sleeping) moment should be one of wonder and challenge.

My advice is to embrace your inner MBA and your role, and develop your own taxonomy of initialisms to match this mindset and sow intrigue among all those you meet at the office, bus stop, and even in the bedroom with your beloved.

I’ll leave you with a few to use or adapt from:

TGIIA – Thank Goodness I’m In Accounting

TGFM – Thank Generosity For Marketing

TGFC – Thank Gallantry For Challenges

TGIB – Thank Grace I’m Breathing

TGIDMMATMSOMC – Thank Goodness I Did My MBA At The MBA School Of MBA Credentials

We hope to see you during our Adelaide Fringe semester. Details here: A Lunchtime MBA.