I guess this is Just a ‘Bad Day’
Breakfast with my son.
My son declared, “Today is going to be horrible.” Before this declaration, he had discovered a growing zit on his cheek and then scraped his arm on the corner of the breakfast bar. I know zits are important to an 18-year-old, and we all bang into something now and then, but I didn’t realize this was the ruination of a whole day.
It made me stop and think. How could two seemingly simple things be the cause for writing off an entire day as lost?
I used to have bad days. In my twenties, I had a lot of bad days. I was 25, divorced, and a single mom working two jobs. Life was tough. A lot of those days were just BAD. That pattern carried me into my 30’s.
Life remained tough. Many days began with a scratch, a zit, or something equally small that set off more bad days. Bad days added up into bad weeks and so on. You know how that goes.
Bad days were overwhelming. They ruined my plans, destroyed my mood, and made me depressed. What made matters worse was I was dating someone who had more bad days than I did. I had to do something to change this downward spiral. But what?
Doing something wasn’t the answer. I had to THINK my way into change.
I had to think back as to how I eliminated the ‘BAD DAY’ from my life.
The answer was rather simple. I took a look at the day as 24 hours of events and asked myself one question. “Can every hour of 24 be bad?”
Of course not. Looking at the last 24 hours, I could find more good hours than bad hours or moments. So I focused on those good hours and made a simple rule to live by:
“You can have a bad moment, but not a bad day.”
Even if the bad moments pile up, they can’t take over a whole 24 hours. That made the day a little brighter and took the depression level down a bit. It has been decades since I had a bad day.
So I had to explain this to my 18-year-old. “The day is just beginning. You can have two little bad moments. But not the entire day.” I paused and let him think about that. I reminded him of all the activities we had planned to make the day fun and eventful. He nodded and agreed. Together we began to steer the day onto a happier path.
If you have bad days, ask yourself this one question. “Is this bad moment going to ruin an entire day?” Work with yourself until you can say. “NO, it can’t.”
