The other day I had a whopper of a day. It was long. It was hectic. And it felt as though every person I came into contact with was sent on a mission to try my patience. So at the end of that day, all I felt was exhaustion. Then for some reason, I really don't know what sparked it, I thought to myself, "There must have been something good about today." So I forced myself to sit and reflect on the activities and interactions from the day, in the hopes of finding aspects that would make me smile. And I did. I actually was able to think of three pretty awesome things that happened during the course of the day, as well as a number of other smaller, maybe less impactful, but good nonetheless, occurrences which had been interspersed throughout that day.
Once I identified those positives in my day, I immediately decided to focus on those, rather than on all the things that I was previously thinking had made it a "bad day." Then I expressed gratitude for them. The realization that I had in fact had a pretty good day put me in fairly high spirits which stayed with me as the evening progressed. Because I was now in a better mood, I found that I was more energized and motivated to work on other tasks, which after a "bad day" like I had had, would usually have made me feel overwhelmed and reluctant to do them. To be honest, I may have called it a day and gone to bed early, frustrated and determined to "start over" the following day.
Based on the experience of that day I decided to create a challenge. Every single day, I must find aspects of my day which can be classified as good, whether large or small, significant or minor. What's important to realize, is that sometimes we think something is bad, but if we look at the situation differently, we would see the good in it.
How willing are you to take on my challenge? At the end of every day, either before you rush out of the office in the evening, or when you're winding down before bed, make a list - written or mental, your choice - of all the good parts of your day. Then express gratitude for them. Doing so will motivate you, it will encourage you, it may even make you more optimistic about something you had doubts about.
Enjoy and good luck!
