Shiv Kumar

When you are having a bad day Life isn’t generally a smooth, linear curve. If you zoom in, you’ll see a fairly irregular one, with ups and downs often very close to each other. The same can be said for any single day in our lives. If there are more highs, you feel you’ve had a great day. If you encounter more lows, it becomes a designated bad day. But how much of this is in your control? And how much is just luck? Many a time, you encounter several lows right at the beginning of the day. A bad outcome on a deal you’re pursuing, poor results in your practice matches, an argument with a loved one or some conflict at work. Sometimes you’re just not feeling fully energised. Or you’re in a bad mood without quite knowing why. How your day eventually turns out depends on how well it started, some luck, and what you do when it seems to be heading towards being a bad one. First things first, give your day a jump-start. An early morning workout or yoga, a great cup of coffee, some meditation, a bit of reading, a nice breakfast. Whatever your routine is, make time for it. This ritual gets you ready for the day. Once you’re in the thick of the action, you’ll start sensing your energy fluctuate. That’s when you need to separate what’s under your control from what isn’t. Start with the things you can do something about. In most cases, this means going back to basics and focusing on things you do well. Find areas that are going well and spend more time on those for the day. Do more of the same thing. Instead of picking up something new, focus on closing projects that are already on the right path. There’s usually something nearly done that needs your attention. Finish it well. Getting a few things done helps. Then comes the more difficult part. Dealing with the uncontrollables. The first step is to slow down, breathe and restart. You may have to do this several times during the day. The next is to watch how you react. Before sending an email or text, think twice. Suspend judgement. Keeping your phone away also helps sometimes. Go for a short walk alone. On a day like this, cut down on experiments. Some new conversations can wait. Even with something as small as what to eat, it’s okay to go with the familiar. Have your own “happy drill”. The same music, the same food, the same excerpt from a book. You probably already know a few things that make you feel better. Keep them handy for such days. The parallel in sport would be to go back to safe shots, familiar movements and the drills you’ve practised so many times. When things aren’t going well, doing the basics properly is a useful place to start. Turning around a bad day also gives you a better chance of starting fresh the next morning. Otherwise, it’s easy to carry the frustration forward and begin the next day with yesterday still on your mind. A day which hasn’t gone your way should also probably end early. Hit the sack earlier than usual and give yourself a chance to recover fully. Life has a lot to do with probability. All we can do is keep improving the chances of each day ending well. A collection of good days becomes a good stretch, and sometimes that becomes a purple patch where you get your best outcomes. Many of you might be in the thick of such a stretch right now. You feel like a superhero. Whatever you touch turns to gold, and you can’t remember what a bad day looks like. You’re lucky to be in a stretch like that. Make the most of it. Life will always fluctuate and if you ever find yourself in a trough, some of this may come in handy. When you know you’re getting into a downward spiral, just apply the brakes and slow down.