Picture taken by me of a card by Papyrus
I could barely get out of bed this morning. I think I hit
snooze about 17 times. I pulled myself out from under my covers and into a
shower where the water was either freezing cold or scalding hot. The stockings
I bought made my skin look orange and I got into an argument with my boyfriend all
before 7AM.
As I walked to the bus stop thinking about what a terrible day
I was about to have, I was hit by a powerful thought: there is no such thing as a bad day. I wish I could say that this
idea was my own. Instead, I’ll confess that it’s the mindset of a
16-year-old ballerino. I watched the documentary First Position a few months ago (as part of a “documentary club” I
have with my friend Caitlin) and this dancer’s girlfriend confessed that he
always tells her that he doesn't believe in “bad days”. How can a whole day be
bad?
Before we all discount this as immaturity or
inexperience, remember that this boy is a ballerina; he’s a ballerina who moved
away from his family in South America to dance in NY. With a ballerina’s life
comes injuries, blisters, and a whole lot of people telling you you’re not good
enough. Oh, and he’s doing this all to make a living so he can help support his
family. So, we’ll cross out immaturity and inexperience for now. I’m
sure he has plenty of days that the rest of us would label as “bad days”. He
just doesn't label them that way.
I want to make it clear that I’m not talking
about those days when devastating tragedies affect our lives. Those days are in
a separate category. I’m talking about those days we all have, some more
frequently than others. Those days when nothing seems to go right and our day
follows suit. At the core of those
bad days is a person declaring the day as bad. We allow any mishap that
could be shrugged off to gain power as it is added to a growing list of all the
things that have gone wrong. We gather up those annoyances and frustrations,
throw them on our back, and allow ourselves to sink under the stress and wallow
in our perception of our “bad day”.
I say bad days stop here. Let’s see negative parts of our
days as just that – unfortunate minutia that exist separate from the tone of
our whole day. When you hear your self-talk uttering a list of reasons why
today is bad, acknowledge it and then move on. Realize that that list exists but
that it shouldn't have the power to discount your whole day. Instead, start
thinking about why the things on that list aren't so bad and replace that list
with one full of gratitude.
Today, as I was thinking of all the ways in which my day was
going to continue to be bad, I stopped my thoughts in their tracks. It wasn't easy. But, I started to list
all of the things that were great about my day:
- It was Wednesday! It’s a quick sprint to the
weekend from here.
- The skyline on the way to work was especially
beautiful today.
- I was going to have a few uninterrupted hours to
catch up on things at work during the afternoon.And so on and so on. Let’s make a concerted effort to end bad days. We only get 365 precious days each year; let’s not waste any.
