Mind Over Matter – Elevating Your Mind Above Negative Work Environments

[Mindset & Motivation](https://donnaevery.com/myblog/category/mindset-motivation)\| [Purpose & Personal Growth](https://donnaevery.com/myblog/category/purpose-personal-growth)

November 26, 2025•2 min read

One of the definitions of _“Mind over matter”_ is the use of willpower to overcome physical problems.

I believe that can apply to mental problems as well.

In my article [“Hating Mondays can make you ill”](https://donnaevery.com/post/hating-mondays-can-make-you-ill), I wrote about the effect that job dissatisfaction can have on your mental health. Sometimes you love what you do but what is making you hate Mondays is working in a toxic _environment_.

When the work is not the issue, but the environment is toxic and you’re in the unenviable position of not being able to change your job, then I want to encourage you to use your mind to elevate yourself above the circumstances.

No matter how bad your work environment is, I don’t think it can compare to a concentration camp! Yet even in a concentration camp in Auschwitz, renowned Viennese Psychologist, Viktor Frankl, was able to use his mind to elevate himself above the horrific circumstances of his life.

[](https://donnaevery.com/post/no)

In his book _Man’s Search for Meaning_, Viktor Frankl, who survived the concentration camp, recounts a personal experience when he limped to his work, almost in tears from pain as he had terrible sores on his feet from wearing torn shoes. All he could think about was his suffering and his miserable existence until he became disgusted with his thoughts (his mind) and forced his thoughts to picture himself in a warm lecture room speaking to an attentive audience on the psychology of the concentration camp.

He said:

“By this method, I succeeded somehow in rising above the situation, above the sufferings of the moment, and I observed them as if they were already of the past.”

Great encouragement from the survivor of a concentration camp!

Rise above your current situation by elevating your mind.

Create a vision board of where you see yourself in the future, doing what you love and excelling at it. Keep it where you can see it and watch how it transforms your mind.

[mindset shift](https://donnaevery.com/myblog/tag/mindset%20shift) [mind over matter](https://donnaevery.com/myblog/tag/mind%20over%20matter) [toxic work environment](https://donnaevery.com/myblog/tag/toxic%20work%20environment) [workplace mindset](https://donnaevery.com/myblog/tag/workplace%20mindset) [workplace wellbeing](https://donnaevery.com/myblog/tag/workplace%20wellbeing) [mental resilience](https://donnaevery.com/myblog/tag/mental%20resilience) [overcoming workplace stress](https://donnaevery.com/myblog/tag/overcoming%20workplace%20stress)

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Hating Mondays can make you ill

[Mindset & Motivation](https://donnaevery.com/myblog/category/mindset-motivation)\| [Purpose & Personal Growth](https://donnaevery.com/myblog/category/purpose-personal-growth)

November 26, 2025•1 min read

Research shows that hating Mondays (i.e. your job) can cause a range of mental health problems including depression, anxiety and burnout. Then there are the physical, emotional and relationship issues that can arise from job dissatisfaction.

[](https://donnaevery.com/post/no)

I remember times in our careers where my husband and I both went through seasons of hating Mondays, thankfully not at the same time. For him it manifested as anxiety and insomnia from the Sunday night and the next morning it would be nausea and retching. It was not a good season.

For me, I didn’t have the physical manifestations, but I was miserable, depressed and irritable which put strain on our marriage. Thankfully, he’s a wonderful husband and took it all in stride and thirty-five years later, we’re still together.

He got through his phase by changing jobs. It wasn’t that he didn’t love his work, it was that his environment was toxic, so he eventually left the company, got a new job and began to love Mondays again. My work environment was fine, but I felt I was not in my purpose, i.e. I didn’t love what I was doing and I was miserable.

Thankfully that all changed when I was sitting at my desk one day and had an epiphany! I realized that although I was not in my purpose, I was in a journey towards my purpose and that no experience was wasted and I was doing myself and the firm a disservice with my poor attitude. I began to treat the company as if it was mine and that completely transformed my attitude and how I felt about my job and Mondays. I began to love Mondays. So can you.

“Until you can do what you love, learn to love what you do.” – Donna Every

[hating Mondays](https://donnaevery.com/myblog/tag/hating%20Mondays) [Monday motivation](https://donnaevery.com/myblog/tag/Monday%20motivation) [workplace mindset](https://donnaevery.com/myblog/tag/workplace%20mindset) [job dissatisfaction mental health](https://donnaevery.com/myblog/tag/job%20dissatisfaction%20mental%20health) [loving Monday](https://donnaevery.com/myblog/tag/loving%20Monday)

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Doggedness – Persevering until you reach your goal

[Mindset & Motivation](https://donnaevery.com/myblog/category/mindset-motivation)

July 06, 2016•16 min read

Doggedness: perseverance; persistence; determination to continue without giving up in spite of difficulties.

I now understand how the word “doggedness” must have originated. I believe someone made it up after observing the persistence of a male dog after a female in heat.

A few years ago I woke up in the middle of the night on hearing a lot of barking and a big ruckus from my dogs.  I got up and shone a torch light down into the garden but I couldn’t see much of what was happening.  After a while they made their way around to the front of the house, so I did as well, and when I looked out of my kitchen window, rather than seeing only five dogs (I now have only four) in the yard, I was horrified to see six!

I say horrified because one of my female dogs, who was just seven months old, and not spayed, was in heat and a short, unattractive dog from somewhere in the neighborhood, had somehow gotten into our yard, and it wasn’t there just to hang out with the other dogs! It must have searched all along the fence to find a weak spot and then it would have had to dig under it or contort itself to get through an impossibly small space.

Well the next day I called the vet to find out what we could do, but she said we could do nothing but wait and see.  I told her that the dog was a lot shorter than ours so I didn’t think that anything could have happened, but I was told that I would be surprised at how these dogs find a way to get the job done.  They not only persevere to get to the female, but then it seems that they will do anything to reach their goal.

That made me take a look at myself.  Was I dogged enough in pursuing my goals?  I know that I have sometimes been guilty of setting goals but when the going gets a bit tough (i.e. I encounter a fence) or I am forced to leave my comfort zone, I have on occasion thrown in the towel.

Well this year I set myself the goal of writing my latest novel, Vaucluse, in four months. Vaucluse will be the fictionalisation of the life of Henry Peter Simmons who bought Vaucluse Plantation in Barbados in 1816. Finishing the book in four months is a very ambitious goal, but I am determined to see it through since this year will be 200 years since Henry Peter bought the plantation.

So I am determined to go about this with doggedness.  Like the male dog I caught in my yard, I’m going to pursue all avenues to reach my goal and, even if it means experiencing some discomfort, like missing sleep or forcing myself to write even when it’s not flowing, I will be persistent and write every day until I finish. I’ve even set myself a date that I want to publish by, so that I have a target before me which will prompt me if I begin to falter. When I make the target, I think I’ll reward myself with a weekend at my favourite place in Barbados, The Crane.

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