Dealing with Bad Days

Yesterday was one of those days when everything went right. I had productive meetings, managed to catch standby flights getting me home three hour earlier, and I even locked eyes with George Clooney and the world stood still. The day was perfect.

Today, on the other hand, is a completely different story. I got some sad news this morning, followed by loads of frustration with Paypal, and it’s only noon.

I usually don’t let bad news or poor service get me down, but today I want to just let it all out in rambo-woman fashion. A piece of chocolate isn’t going to make me feel better, I know.

I want to scream “Why me? Why today? What did I do?”

But then I remember something Thomas Edison once said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Poor service or disappointing news isn’t failure. It’s just the universe telling me that something simply didn’t work, so change it and try again. The sooner we get back on the horse and try again, the sooner we get that much closer to success.

It’s so much easier to see the universe nudging others but hard to recognize when it’s nudging me to change. Today’s events isn’t the universe being cruel and mean. In fact, it’s just the opposite. It’s trying to tell me something and it’s up to me to open my eyes, ears and heart and listen.

Just realizing this makes the blows less severe. They still hurt and I still fancy going all rambo for a good five minutes. But in the end I know what I really need is to exhale, believe in myself, and try again. Then follow it up with some intense middle-of-the-living-room-music-blasting dancing. And, of course, chocolate.