By Dr. Yaya Diamond
It is Monday morning, and I am going to tell you the truth nobody puts on a poster: I am tired.
I sang live two nights this past weekend. Real rooms, real people, real music — the kind of nights that remind me why I do this at all. And this morning, there is no stage and no applause. There is a desk, a list, a week with a voting deadline in the middle of it and a festival stage waiting for me on Saturday, and a whole media company that still needs its host to show up.
Welcome to the part of a creative life that actually decides everything. Not the big night. The ordinary Monday after it.
Inspiration Is Weather. A System Is Climate.
I started podcasting in 2006 and took Dream Chasers Radio public in 2008. In the first few years, more than 14 million listeners found the show. People hear a number like that and they ask me about the secret, as if there was one magical week when it all happened.
There was not. There were thousands of ordinary days when nobody was clapping.
Here is what nearly two decades of this work has taught me: inspiration is weather. It blows in, it feels wonderful, and then it blows right back out. A system is climate. A system is what you built for the days when you do not feel inspired at all — the checklist you follow, the time you set aside, the small promises you keep to yourself even when your voice is tired and your energy is low.
Talent gets you started. A repeatable system is what keeps you in the game long enough for talent to matter.
Let Tired Days Have a Smaller Version — Not a Zero Version
After a show weekend, my Monday does not look like my Thursday. I have learned to stop pretending it should.
So I shrink the work instead of skipping it. I answer the most important message first. I move one interview forward one step. I look at the week's deadlines — this week, voting for "Blues Song" for Song of the Year closes on Thursday, November 5, and the winners are announced Saturday — and I make sure the one thing that cannot wait gets done while I am still fresh enough to do it well.
That is the rule I want every independent artist, author, and podcaster reading this to steal: a tired day gets a smaller version of the plan, never a zero version. One page written is a book moving. One honest post is an audience remembering you exist. One follow-up sent is a door that might open next month. Small and done beats big and imagined, every single time.
Finishing Is a Form of Motivation
Last week, my team and I closed out a whole batch of Dream Chasers Radio interviews — guest after guest, each one placed on video, audio, blog, and social, each one packaged so the guest could share it with the world. None of that work was glamorous. Most of it was checking, placing, writing, and verifying, one guest at a time.
And it is some of the most motivating work I do.
Why? Because finishing changes how you feel about starting. Every completed interview reminds the next guest — and reminds me — that a conversation here does not disappear. It gets finished, and it keeps working. When you finish things, you start trusting yourself. And self-trust, not hype, is the real fuel for a long career.
If you are stuck today, do not look for a bigger dream. Look for the smallest unfinished thing in front of you, and finish that. Motivation usually shows up after the first completed step, not before it.
Remember Who Is Waiting on the Other Side
On the hard Mondays, I think about the people on the other side of my work.
I think about the author who recorded with me and is waiting to send her interview to her readers. I think about the artist who needs one person to take his story seriously. I think about the listener who puts Dream Chasers Radio on while she works, the same way listeners have found this show since 2008.
Your work is never just about your mood. Somebody is on the other side of it, and they cannot get what you make until you make it. That is not pressure — that is purpose, and purpose carries you on the days motivation will not.
Your Monday Assignment
So here is your assignment, and it is a kind one. Pick one thing — one song section, one page, one post, one email — and finish it today, at whatever size your energy honestly allows. Then write down what tomorrow's one thing is before you close the day, so Tuesday does not have to start from zero.
Big weekends are wonderful. I just had one, and I am grateful for every minute of it. But careers are not built on the weekends you shine. They are built on the Mondays when you quietly, faithfully, get back to work.
I am Dr. Yaya Diamond. You can find me at YayaDiamond.com and on social media as @yayadiamondofficial. Now go finish your one thing — I will be right here finishing mine.
— Dr. Yaya Diamond