Turn Your Bad Day Around
Summary
Tiredness doesn’t have to decide your day. Some of my best days have started with me feeling exhausted.
Making a simple plan helped for the day helped - mine was all about interacting with others.
Small moments add up: a “ciao Jack” at the coffee bar, a free ricotta from the farmer, a chat at the barbershop.
Before your next rough day, ask yourself two questions. When have you had a great day straight after something rubbish? And what do you need to get back on track?
Here’s something I wrote two weeks ago:
I’ll be honest, this morning I woke up feeling a bit s***. I shouldn’t throw her under the bus, but Liv had left the morning before for an early flight to the UK. Unfortunately for me she hadn’t turned off her alarm. So for a second morning in a row I woke up three hours before I wanted to. And just like anyone, when you’ve had less sleep, you never feel great.
But I’ve had an epiphany in the last few years and I remembered it whilst I was on my sunrise walk. Some of the best days of my life have been when I’m exhausted, which means being tired doesn’t need to ruin my day.
Yes, the photo looks like it’s from 2006, but it is proof I did actually hand make the ravioli.
I got back from my walk, made breakfast, but there I was, still tired, feeling alone and a bit crappy. “Today has the potential to be a great day,” I reminded myself. So I did what I knew I needed to do to have a good day. I made a plan on my phone: coffee bar; food shopping; make pumpkin ricotta ravioli and a lasagna; get a haircut; stretch and watch a documentary; write; run; ironing.
I’m on “write,” obviously. So I set my day up well, but it still had to go well - and it did.
Here’s why. After breakfast and heading into the coffee bar I was greeted with a loud “ciao Jack” from Mike and Francesca. I ordered my flat white, had a bit of a chat and surprise, surprise, I started to feel a bit better. As I was leaving the coffee bar, I bumped into Nicole. I’d met her the previous week and we’d had a good chat. We exchanged a few words, she went off to the park with her kids and I headed to the market.
Entering the market, the chicken lady waved, the egg lady saw me, looked sadly at me and told me she was sorry that she’d already sold out. The butcher gave me some prosciutto to try as I bought some beef and pork for my lasagna. Just as I left, I spoke to the olive oil lady who explained I’d need to wait three weeks for the next batch of high quality oil.
The same happened as I went to Francesco the farmer, where I told him the risotto I’d made with his kale and porcini mushrooms was beautiful. He then asked me to thank Liv for all that we buy from him as he handed me a ricotta and pecorino free of charge. Beautiful.
Back home making my fresh pasta I was feeling great. The morning had been excellent. Full of small but meaningful interactions. Then just before I came back here to write this and do some stretches, I had my haircut.
Yes, Kledi is a great hairdresser, but he’s mostly a great person. He’s always chatting away and creates an atmosphere that is now lost in most barbershops. Everyone talks to each other. So there we were, three American students, myself and Kledi, chatting away about business and food. Once the Americans left I asked him about his new signs on the wall. Beautiful wooden inscriptions with his values written in Latin.
“Are they made by hand?” I asked him.
“Of course man. When it’s made by someone you know, you can feel their energy.”
Some of my best days have been when I’m tired
My to do list when I feel like a bad day is approaching.
Reading that back two weeks later it seems sort of silly that I woke up thinking, “I’m tired, I’m going to have a bad day.” But it isn’t silly, it’s only human. A bad night of sleep doesn’t have to guarantee a bad day. Looking back, my plan for the day wasn’t really a to-do list, it was a list of activities where I knew I’d get to speak to happy people. For me, spending the day talking to those who really care about what they do, where I can learn from them, that’s what gives me energy.
I am sure you’ll also encounter more and more days where it feels easy to say “life has really knocked me about today.” For you, it might not be a bad night's sleep, maybe it’s an argument with a loved one or being given some crappy tasks at work. But, before that next day hits you - because it will - I encourage you to take five minutes to just remember two things:
When have you had an incredible day after something rubbish happened?
What do you need to get a bad day back on track?
Deepen Your Curiosity
Here’s some reading, watching and listening ideas for turning your day around.
I am a massive fan of the o-p-e-n meditation app. If you’ve meditated before and are a bit bored by the famous ones, I’d highly recommend it.
Definitely get immersed in a good novel! Now is a good time to recommend East of Eden by John Steinbeck which has just come out as a Netflix series as well (it’s very good). One of the core themes is fault versus responsibility. Yes, it might be someone else’s fault that you didn’t sleep well, but it is your responsibility to turn it around.
