How To Turn A Bad Day Into A Good One.
Bad days. You have one. I have tons.
Good days and bad days are like air composition. Bad days are like nitrogen which makes up 78% of the air we breathe and good days are like oxygen. With only 21% of life-supporting molecules floating around, it is fair to say they are the minority race. That said, they are important.
This composition also teaches us the proportion of matter around us. At the Principal level, the 80/20 rule applies.
And if we follow this proportion of natural matter and apply to our work week, it means 4 out of 5 days are bad days. I wrote about having bad days previously. You can read the story here.
Debatable? Sure. Accurate? Absolutely. Not to a “T”, but if we were to review our journals (assuming we journal daily), we aren’t far from the truth.
What that means is salvaging a bad day is important. Otherwise, we would not be able to perform to our best. How can we do that?
We have to figure out what to salvage before we can salvage what we can. Plus, as we are now starting the week today with a Monday, I guarantee that we are, somewhat, feeling, rather shitty, about something.
Maybe someone.
How can we turn the tables? These are my experiences below.
# 1 — When We Wake Up Frazzled.
I experience this frequently. As I work across multiple time-zones, I have less to snooze in terms of absolute hours. And being sharp at work is important for client-facing activities.
What I do: I smash the alarm and head back to snooze. It is much better to wake up later and fresh than earlier and trashed. Waste 15 minutes is nothing compared to wasting a potentially productive day.
I promise you. Moving around like a zombie is not fun.
# 2 — When Seeing An Email Notification Annoys You.
Yeah, that happens. Especially with workplace adversaries or from those who want to get attention. When I am not at my best, emails from these folks annoy the hell out of me. And mind you, I mean I get instantly annoyed to moment I see their names (not even reading the email per se).
What I do: First, arrest that emotion immediately. Take deep breaths. And get off emails for an hour. Don’t pay attention to it until we are ready to read a word. Act to stop negative emotions from spiraling bigger. Detaching for an hour will do the trick.
# 3 — When We Feel Impatient.
Exploding over nothing? Yeah, you are not alone. I get very short-fused when I am in a sub-optimal state. Or when I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Both ways — I have no emotional buffer for long-drawn conversations. I probably refuse to converse as well.
What I do: First, I say my sincere apologies to the person I exploded on. He/She might be innocent. Well, most of the time, they are. Then next, I will head to the cafe downstairs to collect myself over a cup of coffee.
Sometimes, just confining into a toilet cubicle with aircon and sufficient legroom works too. Occasionally, I will shut my office door for a short period of meditation. By giving myself space, I give others space.
My Thoughts.
Bad days are common. And we respond to that is an annoying fashion. It explodes outwards as well.
Self-awareness saves the day. And in fact, being self-aware is the first step to save the day. This is because knowing what happens comes before acting on what happens.
While there are many pathways to salvation, and many of those are likely to be individualistic, it is important to note just one thing.
We can always turn a bad day into a good day. We just have to give our best shot. There are no guarantees but it beats allows the bad days prolonging themselves.
Wishing all a Brilliant Day ahead,
Aldric
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As a content contributor, I write my observations from daily life and my business exposure.
Because our life experience is the bedrock of our unique perspectives.
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