014: Bad Days

We’ve all had one of those days when nothing seems to be clicking. We can’t focus, everything we try seems to miss the target, unexpected things come up, we run behind, we feel lost and we’re ready to quit. In the middle of it all you might realize you’re having one of those days and try to snap out of it, you head outside for a walk, you step back for a bit, you call a friend, you regroup. But as soon as you try to get back to your day, it’s more of the same, when will this day end! Know the feeling? I’m sure we’ve all had days like this - the question is what do you do when it happens? There are many approaches you could take, but the important thing to remember that you can’t make up for a bad day.

You can’t make up for a bad day. That’s a tough thing to accept, with the ‘hustle’ mentality that we all too often fall into, it is easy to let a bad day snowball into a bad week or bad month or worse. The fear of this happening can add more stress to the situation and you start to force things, to try and manifest a change that is not possible. But how do we avoid adding stress to the situation and prevent a bad day from snowballing into something greater?

This often comes down to  the expectations you place on yourself and your relationship with them. It’s good to have expectations for what you need to accomplish in a day, but you also need to be flexible. If it’s a deadline and you just need to get it done, or a concert you have that night - then you get through, you’ve done it before. But you need to adjust your expectations - do not expect to have the best show, do not expect to be at your most productive. Remove your expectations. Eliminating your expectations can often help relieve the stress - you take the pressure off of what you ‘thought’ you needed to get done today. When you relieve the stress things start to open up and flow a bit better.

You also need to listen to what your body and mind is telling you - maybe you need a break, you need a day to relax, refocus and recharge. Trying to do things when you’re having this type of day will not help and only make things worse in the long run. Your body has a way of knowing what it needs if you chose to listen to it - and listening isn’t as hard as it may seem. It’s a simple as recognizing where your mind is running to when you’re having one of these days. Does it keep going to thoughts about that documentary you want to watch, or that book you want to read, or that restaurant you want to go to? Maybe today is the day to listen to that - try something new, explore and learn. You know from experience that this day is probably going to be a total write off work wise - so why make it worse. Recharge so you can come back that much stronger tomorrow. 

You can’t make up for a bad day - and you don’t have to. Re-frame your bad days into good ones for another reason. Get rid of your expectations and trust that you’ll figure it out in the long run, because you have before and you will again.

~ Steve