Anastasia did not respond to her neighbor’s usual greetings
that morning, she drove off much to surprise and launched the car down the drive
way at top speed as if all the devils in hell where on her heels. At the entrance
to her office, she did not smile back as customary to the gate-man neither did
he earn a banknote from her just as most of the times. Anastasia was wondering
what could be going on in her own self as she moved into the building. She
could not place her fingers on anything but she was aware that she just woke up
in a really bad mood when nothing had made her angry, sad, frustrated or
disappointed.
When she passed through the reception without greeting
or responding to the greetings from her colleagues, they looked at each other
in outa surprise. “What could be eating her up this morning?” Jenny – the stout
one asked Jason standing nearby. “Well, let’s say bad days happen to all. From
the way she’s foaming, looks like she struggled to freshen up and be here at
work.”
Anastasia was really struggling that morning to
keep cool, at her desk, she tried to work, but somehow it looked like every
angry or dissatisfied client conspired to complain to her that same morning. In her ears, everyone sounded extraordinarily
stupid and just out to annoy her the
more.
Sounds familiar isn’t it? Even a
seemingly harmless bad night can send you into a temper. No matter how hard you
try to make it better, it can be hard to shake your moody attitude. But here is
the issue, if you allow such a bad mood to follow you to work, it can amplify
all sorts of everyday annoyances and frustrations and that’s disastrous for
goal-getters. At work and in such a mood, you find that you might be unable to hold
it together in front of your boss when he criticizes your report. Or you’re
more prone to raise your voice at your secretary when she mistakenly spills
coffee on your desk. You accountant gets it hot when she brings in only two
copies of the financial statement instead of the three you asked for. You find
yourself making absent-minded mistakes, like distractedly tearing to pieces a
signed document instead of the draft version. There you are.
While none of these are career-ending
mistakes, their effects can leave you feeling down on yourself for days.
Whatever the situation, you know you need to turn it around as soon as
possible. Heading for success should be your focus than the intrigues of a bad
day and so you have to know exactly what is happening.
Anastasia spent the day reminding
herself how she felt stupid and crying out at the slightest opportunity that nothing
was going according to plan. That only further reinforced her frustrations. She
needed to have paused her tragic thinking, and take a moment to identify the
emotions behind those thoughts. That is what I would do and that is what you
should do faced with such a day. Find out if you are angry with a client,
colleague, sibling? Or disappointed with yourself? For example.
It may sound simple, but applying a
label to the emotion you’re experiencing can discharge its hold on you and equip
you to overcome the negative feelings. When you’re nervous, your mind is cluttered,
but research shows that putting your feelings into words can put the brakes on
your emotional response and help you process the situation from a more
rational, calm perspective.
The next time you feel like you woke up from the
wrong side of the bed, force yourself to remember the good stuff. When you’re in a bad mood, everything
is bad. But the good things you appreciated yesterday, when you weren't as
annoyed, should be there - you just forgot them. Spend time considering at
least one or two things that aren't all bad such as something you look forward
to, your future, your dreams, a person you like, something nice that happened
recently and be thankful for that.
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