Nothing can derail our momentum or make us lose ground faster than a bad day that is handled poorly.

I’m one of those ‘got to have 8 hours of sleep or I’m in a bad mood’ kind of people.  But this post isn’t about sleep, but how we handle ANY of those circumstances that leave us with a short fuse and/or a skewed perspective.  I’m talking about those moments in time when your glass suddenly becomes half empty and you’re tempted to take it out on the world around you.

Yesterday was one of those days.  I had been going to bed late for various reasons and started to feel the effects.  Suddenly my optimism had been cut in half and my fuse along with it.  I had a busy day of consulting ahead of me and I wasn’t looking forward to it.  Just the ‘people interaction’ alone was something I was dreading (even though I usually quite enjoy that part of my business).

As I went through the day I found myself struggling to smile at my client’s attempts at lite discussion.  I felt crabby and started to realize that I was just moping around and drudging through my work.  Once I saw the frown on my face I quickly forced a smile and did everything I could to get my head in the game.  I managed to get through my jobs and the rest of the day without any major mishaps.

DANGER!!!  DANGER!!!

This may sound like a regular story of a guy who just needed some more sleep, but if you read between the lines you will see major negative ripples barely averted.

Think about it.  How much work does it take to build up someone’s trust and respect?  And yet, how easy is it to bring that house of cards crashing to the ground? I know that my consulting business hasn’t grown into many hundreds of loyal clients by me moping around doing just enough work to get by.  I’ve worked my butt off to not only bring my most focused mind to a job site, but my most positive and encouraging mindset as well.  And yet all it takes is ONE BAD DAY that is handled poorly to turn all your hard work into wasted time.

You can talk all day long about how to prevent bad days and that’s great stuff to know.  But whether we like it or not, we are going to find our happy juices running low now and again.  And when this occurs, we need to be very mindful of our responsibility to our own success, as we make our way through the day.

Here are a few thoughts that might help the next time you find yourself in this dangerous territory.

• Look people in the eye and smile. We tend to keep our eyes to ourselves when we’re in a bad mood.  This not only comes across as rude, but let’s us remain in our frowning facade.  Often times it’s our actions that need to come first and our feelings will follow.  Force yourself to give the other person a big fat smile and you’ll not only make them feel good, but you’ll most likely melt some of your ‘frozen features’ as well.
• Take ‘mini breaks’ whenever you can. When every moment of your day feels like a struggle to stay positive, it’s absolutely essential that you take breathers between ‘missions’.  Use the time to rest your mind and breathe deeply.  Pushing yourself is great when you can stand the pressure, but on these days you need to just do what you can to stay afloat.
• Give yourself something to look forward to at the end of the day. Just like that big piece of chocolate cake will help a child push through the peas on his plate, so too do we sometimes need a prize to keep our drive alive.
• Practice the ‘Golden Rule‘. It’s as old as time, but has never gone out of style.  When you’re having trouble being nice to people that you need and/or want to be nice to, try to step outside yourself and treat them the way you’d like to be treated.  It will not only help you keep a healthy perspective, but you’ll be more likely to maintain those healthy relationships.
• Know that tomorrow is a new day! Sometimes the only thing that gets me through a rough day is the knowledge that I’ll get another crack at it in less that 24 hours.  I make a game plan to NOT repeat whatever put me in my funk in the first place, and then just put ONE FOOT IN FRONT OF THE OTHER!

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