All of us have three types of days.
- Days when something super positive happens, and you are thrilled. You crack a big deal, or you discover some solution to a long-standing problem.
- Days when everything happens, as usual, nothing good, nothing wrong. Typical average days- you are going in and out of meetings to keep up with your schedule.
- Days when something awful and unexpected happens-You commit some error and shit hits the roof, or you discover that you may be made redundant, or you spill coffee on your new $5000 sofa.
It’s easy to look good and feel good on the good days when everything is on an even keel and going as per plan. But what about the bad days?
My son might not remember anything about how I behaved on a relaxed weekend when the week had gone well. But if I were to ask him to tell me about how I acted on my bad days, he would have lots of stories to tell- the day dad fought with mom or someone at work upset him. He would surely remember those days where the stress of the day showed up in my behavior.
We say the strength of a chain is in its weakest link. We can extend the same analogy to say that the strength of our personality is in our behavior on bad days.
The truth about our personality reveals itself on our worst days. What we do when things unravel and everything goes awry cannot be faked. Our behavior is stark and unadulterated.
Our bad days also reveal how we have been preparing ourselves to deal with the inevitable bad days we all will have. Have we developed our emotional maturity to handle the stresses more efficiently, or do we operate the same way we have done in the past?
If we were all athletes-the regular days would be like the practice days and the bad days like the game days. Our worst days give us an opportunity to show up with full strength, stand out, and give our best. When the chips are down, we get to dig in and discover our inner resilience. And, hopefully, on the game days, we get to come out victorious.