Bad Days – 123 Days Left

Reality hits hard sometimes. I just end up having bad days. There is nothing I can do about it, I am going to be going along happily and then almost out of nowhere the stress level increases, demands are placed on me, external sources are extra demanding, my schedule is crazy, and other circumstances slip out of my control. Bad Day. Or perhaps Bad Week.

This is probably the largest culprit behind not being successful at your new commitment. It is for me at least. Believe me, I have Bad Days and I have attempted to tackle this problem and I wanted to share some insight with you this morning on what has helped me on my journey of keeping a string of commitments over a long period of time. The first concept that I have come to accept, is that bad days are going to happen and there is just nothing I can do to prevent that. No matter how hard I try to reduce stress, avoid anxiety, control my circumstances there is going to be times when I am just crushed by an avalanche of demands and I am going to be facing a bad day again. So I have learned to stay calm when this happens and just accept it. To repeat my mantra – embrace the suck.

I have been trying to maintain good habits my entire life. When I was young, around 19, I decided to start to try to implement a few good habits. They lasted about a week. I failed, because of a bad day. I have kept trying for years. I would start a journal, or write down my thoughts when I did this. I have a folder in dropbox that is full of failed starts, journal entries proclaiming that today was going to be the day when I started something great. Only to stop 1, 2, 3 weeks later and never return to the commitment that I started. I have notebooks as well, I had a notion that an analog format for keeping a record of progress was better. However, I have a bookcase in my office full of notebooks with 5, 10, 15 entries and then the rest of the pages are blank. Embarrassing to state, but my life is a long track record of failed attempts at keeping personal commitments.

However, that has now changed. 390 days ago, I started one of those notebooks and it is completely full with 365 entries. I am on to the second notebook. One of the things that I have been keen to track, or at least be conscious of is the Bad Day. Here is the honest truth, and it maybe a harsh reality but I find it strangely comforting. Over the course of 365 days, over 30% of the days were chalked up as “bad”. That means that over a year of keeping a personal commitment, 100 of those days are going to be rough. In my case they come in cycles. Maybe I have a mental disorder or something, but it seems that every 60 to 90 days I will have a string of bad days and I will suffer through them. Doing the bare minimum, but getting it done nonetheless.

I am not sure I can offer much to help you with these bad days. I have tried everything I can think of. Perhaps the best has been regular exercise – sort of blows the cob webs away so to speak. The other might be the meditation routine that I picked up. That has been helpful to clear the mind of stress and anxiety. I think above all has been the consistency and what I call, “Guy, you have no choice. You are going to do it anyway, so quit whining about how hard the day is and just suck it up and get it done.” I never want to start my commitment on a bad day, I always am just pissed off about it. However, once I set my resolve and write in my notebook and then do my run, my pushup routine and other commitments the day starts to feel a little better. The consistency of the commitment seems to create a rhythm that is somehow powerful in helping to dampen the anxiety caused by a bad day.

Sadly, it does not get easier. However, I have noticed that after keeping a habit for at least 90 days the consistency pays off. Even on a bad day, I will roll out of bed and just start doing my commitment. I will be half way down the block running before I realize what I am doing. So it is still rough, but somehow my commitment just feels stronger and my bad days less impactful on me. I still have them, they just don’t crush me as bad as they used to.

The final thought on this topic. Constant forward progress is the key. On a bad day, I am ok with just doing the minimum. The point is that I do it. It may not feel like much progress is happening when you just get absolute bare essentials done, but the point is that you did it. You maintained the habit. That is more powerful than you can conceive and that is because of the cumulative effect of a consistent habit. Small incremental forward progress consistently over time will overpower any setbacks you get from bad days.

Having a bad day? Awesome. You are making progress. Get through this one and the next set of good days will be even brighter. Oh and do not worry. You will have worse bad days to contend with, so don’t let this trivial bad day get in your way.

Guy Reams
365 Alumni
123 Days Left to 1st Marathon