Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is that you can turn a tough day around.
Speaker 1: When bad circumstances start to pile up, you can rescue
Speaker 1: the narrative with a conscious reset. With any luck, the
Speaker 1: day could end up pretty decent. Over the past few weeks,
Speaker 1: I've been talking about how to build a more resilient schedule.
Speaker 1: True time management masters deal with life as it is,
Speaker 1: not as we wish it to be. The reality of
Speaker 1: life is that some days are just tough, you know
Speaker 1: the kind. Maybe you are in a bad mood and
Speaker 1: so everything seems harder, or maybe you started out feeling
Speaker 1: fine but life has heaped all sorts of misery upon you.
Speaker 1: It's going to be hard to rescue a day when
Speaker 1: you are stuck in the emergency room for hours. But
Speaker 1: for most normal, lousy days, making a conscious decision to
Speaker 1: change the day's trajectory can be quite profound. That's because
Speaker 1: humans love to create stories to make sense of our world.
Speaker 1: One of the most common story formats is to list
Speaker 1: three points of evidence and then draw a conclusion based
Speaker 1: on that. Think about the children's book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible,
Speaker 1: no good, very Bad Day. He starts listing his troubles,
Speaker 1: getting the middle seat in the carpool, no dessert at lunch,
Speaker 1: the shoe store being out of the sneakers he wants.
Speaker 1: He draws the conclusion that he is going to have
Speaker 1: to move to Australia. Each additional woe just adds to
Speaker 1: the case. We laugh as we read the story, but
Speaker 1: how often do we do the exact same thing. My
Speaker 1: kid missed the bus, so I drove her to school,
Speaker 1: and I was late to a meeting, and then learned
Speaker 1: we've lost a competitive bid proposal, and I spilled ketchup
Speaker 1: on my favorite blouse. And then we draw the conclusion
Speaker 1: that this is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
Speaker 1: And then once we have our narrative, we look for
Speaker 1: more evidence to support it. And guess what, if you
Speaker 1: are hunting for evidence, you will find it. A normal
Speaker 1: evening will suddenly offer up all sorts of misery as
Speaker 1: a result. But we can actually draw whatever conclusions we want.
Speaker 1: So the best way to turn around a tough day
Speaker 1: is to stop and change the story. First, make a
Speaker 1: point of putting some good stuff into the rest of
Speaker 1: the day. Plan to meet a friend for dinner after work,
Speaker 1: or have your family order from your favorite restaurant. Hunt
Speaker 1: for a favorite funny podcast to listen to during your commute,
Speaker 1: or put a quick playlist together of your favorite songs.
Speaker 1: Text your spouse about watching a favorite movie after the
Speaker 1: kids go to bed, or sharing a drink on the porch,
Speaker 1: or set up a call with a far flung friend
Speaker 1: or relative who always energizes you. Once you know you
Speaker 1: have three positive points of evidence coming up, you can
Speaker 1: promptly switch the narrative. This is going to be an
Speaker 1: awesome day. Even if you remember stubbing your toe in
Speaker 1: the morning. You can say, well, hey, I've got this
Speaker 1: amazing e book that I'll get to read in the
Speaker 1: bathtub tonight. Or maybe you and the kids are going
Speaker 1: to go for an evening bike ride on a local trail,
Speaker 1: or those spicy tuna rolls will show up and make
Speaker 1: everything better. Then just keep repeating how awesome a day
Speaker 1: it's going to be with this good stuff coming up,
Speaker 1: and with this as your narrative, you will start to
Speaker 1: find evidence to support that. You will note that your
Speaker 1: boss stopped by to praise how you handle that tricky
Speaker 1: question in last week's meeting, You'll read a thank you
Speaker 1: email from a colleague and really soak it in. You'll
Speaker 1: notice a lovely spot of flowers as you walk to
Speaker 1: your car. That is how you turn a tough day around.
Speaker 1: We can consciously put in good stuff. We can start
Speaker 1: a different story, and then we can start to see
Speaker 1: more supporting evidence. It is really as simple as that.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod.
Speaker 1: That's b E the number four, then Breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at iHeart media dot com. That Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I
Speaker 1: look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.