The Daily Meaning

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Travis Shelton Travis Shelton

One of Those Days

Yesterday was one of those days. You know what I’m talking about. Anything that could go wrong, did go wrong. I didn’t accomplish one single thing I set out to do. Meetings ran long, traffic delayed me every step of the way, two of my clients are dealing with sudden and profound financial emergencies, I let someone down, a few unexpected tasks drained hours of my time, and to top it off, I stopped by the office late in the day to discover water damage from the prior night’s storm. Wow!

Yesterday was one of those days. You know what I’m talking about. Anything that could go wrong, did go wrong. I didn’t accomplish one single thing I set out to do. Meetings ran long, traffic delayed me every step of the way, two of my clients are dealing with sudden and profound financial emergencies, I let someone down, a few unexpected tasks drained hours of my time, and to top it off, I stopped by the office late in the day to discover water damage from the prior night’s storm. Wow!

I love my life, but some days are just flat-out brutal. It’s enough to make me want to give up at times. I won’t, of course, but the thought does cross my mind from time to time. Perhaps you had one of those days recently. Maybe today is one of them! You aren’t alone. For better or worse, there are countless others also having utterly terrible days. I’m going to handle today like I always try to handle the day after a disaster:

  1. Remind myself today is a new day, a fresh start. It doesn’t have to be like yesterday.

  2. Turn off my phone to eliminate all distractions…..I need solid focus more than ever right now.

  3. Get a quick win on an easy task to create some momentum.

  4. Pursue one of my most important tasks to move the needle on progress.

  5. Apologize to anyone I might have let down yesterday. This one is critical for me.

  6. Find at least one hour to do something with nothing at stake. Watch a ridiculous YouTube video, read an article about the NBA, or maybe listen to a podcast about some random topic I know nothing about.

  7. Reflect back on the prior day and identify blessings in disguise. There’s a silver lining in even the worst disaster.

  8. Get some quality time with my kids to reset perspectives and priorities.

Is this what I always do? No. Sometimes I just writhe around in a blanket of self-pity with an overwhelming feeling of defeatedness. Is defeatedness even a word? Grammarly is telling me no, but I’m going to go with it. I don’t always rally well, but if someone asked me to help them get through their situation, this is the advice I’d give them. Maybe I should take my own medicine…..

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