When you’re not feeling fabulous…
ByOK, we all have bad days. You know the ones, you’re tired and stressed, the kids are playing up, nothing seems to be going right. Yet, you need to attend a networking event, do a blog post, twitter, and all the other things us business mums do day to day.
When people ask how you are, you wish you could say “I’m having a really bad day, business really isn’t going as well as you think it is”, but you can’t!
What do you do? Do you just grin and bare it and hope tomorrow is better? Do you hide under the doona or lose yourself in a box of chocolates?
I’ve started using these times to either take a day off, or take a critical look at what I’m doing. It was one of these days I finally bit the bullet and hired Kylie from Tilda Virtual Services to take over my bookkeeping - it was getting me down, stressing me out, and driving me around the bend, and I really didn’t need the extra stress of bookkeeping on top of everything else.
How do you cope with bad days and your business? Post comments with your best tips. The best tip will win a copy of Real Songs for Real Mums from RealMums.com.au.
7 Comments
May 27th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Great tips Melissa… Yes there is only so much of faking you can do … we just need to realise that there will be ups and downs and stay true to your dream… and like you said… take a day off. We make ourselves too contactable some times… thanks for sharing.
May 27th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
I am having one of those days atm. (actually been like that for the last week) i try to take a break for that day if i can from work.
i end up making mistakes and its just not good for anyone… so have been using that this down time to get tasks done that dont require too much brain strain but need to be done and which will free up my time for work later on when i am feeling better. Simple things like sorting out my desk, like filing papers or even menu planning and cooking big batches of meals. Even just printing out some articles i have been meaning to read or some inspiring stories of other business women. They are all things that need to be done and i feel better to have ticked some off the list.
May 27th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
We really are so hard on ourselves arent we. When I’m having a bad day i just remind myself ‘this too shall pass’ and know that when i wake up tomorrow I’ll feel fantastic so its ok that today is alittle average.
I also take into account a bad day a week in my business. I only need four great days on average to keep everything ticking along so why put so much pressure on!
I believe our feelings are really important to ‘listen to’ i mean really listen to, so when feeling low I spend 10 -15mins just getting in touch with the feeling in my body and trying to identify what the real feeling is (is it fear, sadness, tiredness, dissapointment, overwhelm) and then I try to come into the present as much as possible. Feelings often fall away easier when we be with them rather than resist them and i find this works really well to take the edge off the emotion.
If i have clients to see, i try to get physical beforehand ie go for a walk, do a quick yoga session at home or even some stretching - the movement helps release the neg emotion.
Anyway i could write an essay on this topic, so I best move on…
meanwhile, lets embrace those yucky days as part of being imperfectly perfect!!
Sacha
May 27th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Hi, I Find when i have those days
i Pop On my Fav songs that Inspire me!!
Christina Aguliera “Stripped” Soar & Keep on singing my Song
& find after listening to whole album I am feeling stronger more inspired & lifted mentally & soul
May 27th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Great tips and ideas Melissa, I think my new one will be print these out and use them when I need to.
For me when I am having a bad day I really need to take time out, do some gardening, cooking, go shopping whatever, but completely switch off from the business side for a day or two. I find when I haven’t thought about it for a little while it clears my head and then I can jump in again with both feet and a fresh mind.
I am lucky in that I share my business with my sister and so have someone who can help perk me up on down days and I can with her as well.
Aside from all that wine helps as well
May 27th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
You mean like today when I’m feeling really rotten and trying to remind myself that I’m one month closer to menopause (good news), but I’ve got so much to do that I really can’t go to bed with a gallon of hot chocolate and some lovely books (bad news).
I’ve done two things about it today.
The first thing was to venture into the Business Mums forum, that always helps as the people are generally so upbeat and powerful.
The second was to remind my eldest to empty the dishwasher. She moaned about it so I asked her what year she was going to do it (she was meant to do it before dinner last night), when she ignored that remark I asked her what calender she was using and that got some explosive laughter. Making someone else laugh always makes me feel better.
May 28th, 2009 at 11:57 am
Some great ideas there - Sacha I think it is fantastic to get in touch with your own feelings like that.
It depends on what’s going on when I have a bad day as to how I deal with it - pressing deadlines don’t always allow a day or evne an hour off.
Some of the things I do are
- take a few minutes to help someone else (eg answering questions on the BMN forums)
- have a cuddle with my baby
- walk to the letterbox - not great exercise but it gets me moving and out of the office for a moment
- quickly do another task for a change of pace and feel I’ve accomplished something (eg a quick blog post, sort some emails, tidy something, read a trusted blog, write a cub program)
- put on some music
I also have a notebook with good things in it (lists of my achievements, nice things people have said about me, etc) as a pick me up reference but I admit I don’t use it as much as I should!