Do THIS When YOUR Day Just Plain Sucks!
We all know those days when we just can't seem to get anything done. Usually, disaster strikes already in the morning and runs like a dreaded red thread through the whole day. Such gloomy chains of events then fuel each other. We become impatient, annoyed, break off unnecessary conflicts and stumble from one misunderstanding to the next on top of everything else. Productivity is out of the question, and not even the small pleasures that usually brighten our everyday lives are granted to us. Unfortunately, the social and economic fabric of our existence prohibits us from simply hiding under the covers on such days and waiting until tomorrow. For those who need to get out into life and face the demons of Murphy's Law, there is only one effective thing to do about it: mentally embrace and comfort yourself. Here in this article we have some suggestions for doing just that.
1. Tomorrow is a new day
It may sound too cliché, but tomorrow everything will be different again. We should never underestimate the magical effect of a good night's sleep. Many problems have already lost a large part of their terror the next day. If now and then the day seems to be simply spoiled, just let it be so. The magic word is acceptance. We don't always have everything under control. Sometimes life turns the tables on us and lets us get blasted in its wind tunnel. No matter what, tomorrow will go on and today will be over. If this hopeful approach seems too short-sighted for you, try this: On bad days, imagine what meaning the events will still have for you a year from now. This look into the future puts many things into perspective.
2. Focus on things that you can control
When life unceremoniously decides to get out of hand and unfortunate events seem to follow us at every turn, the only thing that helps is a brief self-imposed timeout. Think of it like the cut in filming a movie or the timeout in sports. Prescribe yourself a short forced break. You use this to take a deep breath, but also to get back in control of the situation. Okay, things don't seem to be going well in your world today. A lot of things seem to be conspiring against you, but not all of them you have to accept idly. Which of today's challenges that could still turn against you do you have a handle on? Are there deadlines you could postpone or cancel? Are there tasks that don't necessarily need to be done on your unlucky day? Just take away the momentum of bad luck and don't give it any more of a target than absolutely necessary. Bad days are like wildfire. You have to turn off the oxygen supply to stop feeding it. Anything you can somehow control on those days will ultimately help you through it.
3. Believe in yourself and let the storm pass
The real bummer about bad days is their effect on our self-image. One minute the sun was shining in our universe and we practically had the world in our pocket. Suddenly, everything seems to have been just a golden illusion. Setbacks and defeat affect our motivation and self-esteem like a veritable hail of bullets. Every shot here is guaranteed to be a hit. Don't let a bad run take you off your path and convince you that you're not good enough. You've come so far and you've earned everything that's good and real in your life. A mediocre day in no way diminishes your track record. We are frighteningly quick to let ourselves be pushed out of the way by minor crash landings. The culprit is the secret doubts that are constantly working in the background, just waiting for a good opportunity to finally gain the upper hand again. Like little goblins, they sit on our shoulders and whisper to us little that motivates us, but a great deal that destroys us. But these little monsters disappear as soon as you restore your faith in yourself. Things are going well for you, just not today.
4. It's okay to take a break and ask for help
If bad times have anything good about them, it's that we recognize our strengths, but also who will stay by our side in case of doubt once the sun stops shining. Anyone who manages to use a run of bad luck and an unlucky day to take a forced break from life definitely has a clever trick up their sleeve for the future. Making lemonade from the lemons of the tree of life shows true greatness and an unconditional desire not to let trifles get you down so quickly. Asking for help is another matter. Some people find hardly anything more difficult than that. Nevertheless, in some situations we have no choice but to timely assemble a network of helpful good spirits, who are quickly on hand in case of doubt, and can be essential for survival. Use catastrophic times to learn how to ask for help when you are struggling to do so. No one person can do anything superhuman, but together we can easily accomplish many things that seem impossible on our own.
5. Hard times are unavoidable
Last but not least, a little comforting moment of truth, but one that is unfortunately absolutely true. Bad days like this don't have to become the norm, and they almost certainly never do. But they will come. They will come upon us like a thunderstorm and they will not spare any of us. As sure as anything, good times are followed by bad. Our personal success curve cannot always go steeply upwards. That would be unnatural and would also cost us far too much energy. The one setback or the other, however, forces us into a time-out, which the clever ones among us use to recover. What you should definitely take away from this unpalatable truth, however, is this: It's not your fault if things go badly in your life one day. Nothing that happens on those days has anything to do with you personally. For that reason, we shouldn't take it personally either. Maybe one of our decisions was not optimal. Maybe our schedule could be improved. But we are not to blame for the vast majority of incidents that happen on our days of misfortune. There is also no conspiracy or curse that we are subject to here. Sometimes life just gets stuck. The best way to overcome these dry spells is to remain calm, exercise patience and keep the fast pace of life in mind. Tomorrow everything will be in the past. In a year, no one will be crowing about it anymore.
Today's Conclusion: Close your eyes and get through it
If there's one motto that we should take to heart for a rainy day, it's this: Simply staying at home and burying our heads in the sand is unfortunately only an option for very few of us. Everyone else would do well to sit out the crisis and always keep it in mind. After rain comes sunshine. That's it for today.