ARE YOU HAVING A BAD DAY?

​​So yesterday, I had a bad day. You know those days?  Well, this one was a REALLY bad day. It started out with me getting an invite from a friend to join a blog challenge. When I clicked the link, I discovered it was a challenge that I had joined more than TWO YEARS ago! That blog of mine no longer exists. That was it. The straw that broke the camel’s back. I just started to cry. I was in a state of overwhelm because I have just recently (finally, after 6 months of HARD work) launched my own website for my coaching business. Of course I have not had clients banging my door down. The site has only been up since October! I don’t have a mailing list yet. None of that mattered yesterday! I was, in my mind, a complete failure. Because I don’t have enough clients yet, I  have to “go back to” my old job as an international biking and hiking guide (a job most people would kill for! Traveling the world, staying in 5 star hotels and sharing different cultures with my guests). But to me, it was a STEP BACKWARDS. I was a failure. Yesterday, everything was black or white, failure or success. Yesterday, I chose black.

So what did I do? What I always do when I am in that mood – I took a LONG walk and tried to refocus on the good stuff. It didn’t work. I tried pretending it was all going to work out (after all, Merci Miglino, an awesome coach and the HEAD OF CURRICULUM at my coaching school was coming to Italy to lead a weekend retreat with me!) It didn’t matter. I was still a failure because I had only 2 paying clients.

You get the picture. We’ve all had days like these. Luckily, I have a partner who knows me well (after 31 years, she should!) and supports me. She just let me be, knowing I’d bounce back like I always do. I got a GOOD night’s sleep (well, I was exhausted because the night before I’d been awake for 4 hours worrying!) and this morning I woke up on the “right side of the bed”.

I’m not going to say that it’s “all roses”, but as I had my coffee this morning, I reflected on the last 2 years of my life (since I took that blog challenge). And I realized that in those 2 years, I had:

• started a blog (during the challenge)
• written a few posts (that actually got positive comments – someone even asked how they could FOLLOW my site – I never set up a link to sign up for a mailing list because I didn’t know how)
• started and graduated from coaching school
• been invited to do a live coaching demo at the Italian ICF (International Coaching Federation) convention in Milano with Rossella Pin, another awesome coach and head of the Italian branch of ICA (before I graduated)
• created and launched my coaching site
• coached 7 clients, all of whom gave me amazing testimonials
• begun planning my first women’s retreat with the head of curriculum from my coaching school

I asked myself, “What part of that is a failure?” What had changed since yesterday?  Nothing – except my perspective.
Of course, that brought a smile to my face and sent me running to my computer to write it all down!

So, my friends, the next time you are having a bad day – even a REALLY bad day – try to remember that this too, will pass. Just let it be. Feel it. Don’t try to resist the feeling. Remember that it is just that – a feeling. There will be another day.

And your perspective WILL change, if you choose to let it.