We've All Had Those Days — and Why the Bad Ones Are Worth Keeping

18 Jun

We've all had those days — let's be honest, sometimes whole weeks or months — when you'd give anything for a 'do-over'. The kind where nothing quite goes to plan and you start wondering whether it's too late to crawl back under the duvet and try again tomorrow.

If you run a business, you'll know exactly the sort of day I mean.

The hard stuff nobody warns you about

Maybe it's an organisation, a piece of software or a system that's pushed you to the edge. Or perhaps a mistake slipped through on a job, a client walked, or a team member (or customer) decided to be thoroughly stroppy that day.

This is the hard stuff that comes with running a business — the bits you have to face, make peace with and, with any luck, learn something from as you keep putting one foot in front of the other.

My own recent do-over

For me lately, it's been the opportunity cost. Hours sunk into trialling some shiny new piece of technology that ultimately led nowhere.

In the AI era, with something new to test every other week, it's a trap we all need to watch for. The promise is always so tempting — and the time quietly disappears before you've even decided whether the thing is any good.

So I've given myself a simple rule: a firm time limit on trialling anything new. When the clock's up, I decide — park it or bin it — and move on. No more open-ended rabbit holes.

The (slightly petty) secret to surviving a bad day

Here's my honest take. The best antidote to a rough day is learning something from it.

And if you genuinely can't? The second-best antidote is knowing some other poor soul is suffering right alongside you. Misery, as they say, loves company. You’ll have seen those images on social media of the lady blowing out birthday candles only to find her hair is on fire. Or the bewildered customer standing in the supermarket aisle having accidentally tipped over an entire display of cooking oil. Indeed I read an article about Air New Zealand that quietly admitted it flew 34,001 empty seats across its US network over January and February of this year - whoops!

What would you tell yourself a year ago?

We tried this exercise at a recent networking group, and it's surprisingly powerful.

It makes you stop and take stock — how far you've come, the hurdles you've cleared along the way, and the decisions, big and small, that have landed you exactly where you are today.

Then flip it around. Imagine where you want to be in 12 months' time. What needs addressing? Where will you invest your time? What will life — and your business — look like?

Suddenly a bad day feels less like a disaster and more like one small data point on a much longer journey.