What Mom Said When I Had a Bad Day
“If you’re reading this … Congratulations, you’re alive. If that’s not something to smile about, then I don’t know what is.”
–Chad Sugg
We’ve all had them. The bad day. The bad week. Maybe even the bad month.
Typically, our first line of defense is to look for something – or someone to blame. Most often though, we end up blaming ourselves.
If things seem to go wrong repeatedly, the whole world can to go against us. We feel victimized. We feel like there’s something wrong with us.
When we feed into those feelings, we start to expect the bad, rather than the good each day has to bring.
The truth is that sometimes there is no blame, or rhyme, or reason to why bad days happen. They just do. The good news is that you can change how you feel about it, and that can make all the difference in the world..
Abe Lincoln said, “Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
We can run around like Chicken Little thinking the sky is falling and it’s the end of the world; or we can realize that our reactions are a matter of choice, and our choice, which includes how we choose to react to negative situations, is entirely within our control.
We alone determine how bad we want our day to be.
While we might not be able to change all bad days into good, we can certainly make them not as bad as they seem to be. In fact, bad days can often motivate us to examine if the event was just one of those things, or definitely a problem that needs fixing.
Before all else, you need to change the way you allow bad days to affect you, and I must admit, Mom was on the right track.
Here’s what she used to tell me:
- Complaining does nothing. What do you want to do about it? Wallowing about what’s gone wrong doesn’t solve the problem and only keeps your you head in a ‘bad’ place. Focus on solutions. The very process shifts your perspective and gets your head out of the sand.
- Tomorrow is another day. A bad day doesn’t last forever. Tomorrow is brand new. What do you want to do with it.
- Whatever will be will be. Sometimes it’s simply a matter of understanding that life isn’t always under your control. Roll with it.
- Laughter is the best medicine. The quickest way I know to shift your perspective.
- So tell me, what happened that was good? Shift your focus from what went wrong, to what went good for you. I’m sure something went right today.
- No one said life was easy. If it was, there would be nothing to strive for. No goals. Nothing. B-o-r-i-n-g.
- Winning isn’t everything. A good reminder that our greatest satisfactions often lie not in winning the game but by how we played it.
When you let a bad day get to you, doesn’t only bring you down, but it effects everyone else around you.
While you’re family will cut you some slack, it’s likely that your customers won’t be that kind.
Remember, you’ve gotten through bad days and rough patches before. You’re living proof that they’re not the end of the world.