Ridiculous question, right?

We all have.  You have.  I have.  

And let’s be honest- crappy days kinda stink.

The question then becomes… What do we do about it? What do we do with a crappy day?

Last Monday I had one of those days. I think you know the kind of day I mean- the kind of day where it’s a good thing you didn’t know you needed to be ready for it. The kind of day where you just want it to be done. The kind of day that you unintentionally make a couple decisions that send the rest of the day south.

A day that you look back and say what just happened?  And why?

I think you know what kind of day I am talking about. And I suspect I’m not the only one that has had one of those days.

So what do you do with a day like that?

You have a choice. 

You can let what has happened so far ruin the rest of your day and possibly your week, or you can choose to flip the script.

I don’t know about you, but I love to flip the script. 

So what does it mean to flip the script?

Towards the end of the day, I had this moment of consciousness or clarity (pretty confident it wasn’t nitrous) that the day had been challenging and, well, crappy. Actually it was pretty obvious that the day was lousy.  The clarity was in my acute awareness of it in the moment. But I didn’t want that to be the last word.

Here’s where it got interesting.

I decided that on my walk home, I was going to try to flip the script so that the rest of my night wouldn’t be shot.  So i wouldn’t walk into my home complaining and remain in a bad mood for the night.

As I walked, I pondered the way things had been a few years ago. I pondered some of the tough days I had during that very difficult stretch of life. I pondered some of the tough decisions that had to be made. I relived those tough days- but only for a moment.  For perspective.

And then I let gratitude take over. The rest of the walk home was thanking God for all of the blessings of my life, all the good people in my life, my family, my friends, my team, and all the experiences we have had, and will get to have.

And a ton of gratitude that a day like this now seems like an outlier and not the norm.

And slowly, the negativity of the crappy day started to subside. By the time I got home, my mood was up and I had a dose of fresh perspective. And the script was flipped.

I will be the first to admit that this isn’t going to work every time. But if it didn’t work, at the least, I was going to get about 30 minutes of saying things I was grateful for. And I certainly don’t see any harm in that.

You might be thinking- I can’t walk to work- I don’t have any time- how do I do this?  Take five minutes extra on your drive home.  Sit at your desk with the computer screen off for five extra minutes.  Just breathe for a few minutes before you head home.  I used 30 minutes because that is how long my walk is.  Truth be told, the script started to flip in about 5.  The rest was  bonus time!

So the next time you find yourself having a crappy day or just one of those days, what if you flip the script? What if you instead believe that good days are ahead and realize that the only way you will be able to #WINtheNOW and get back to the present moment is if you get back on the horse and keep trying?

A crappy day had a great ending. But it didn’t happen by accident.

So that is the choice we get.  We will have crappy days.  Sometimes many of them.  In the midst of it, we have a choice.  We can flip the script or we can try our best to move forward.  For us.  For our people.  And for those we come into contact with.

Want a little more reading on a favorite way of mine to flip the script?  Check out this blog on quiet.