What Kind of Day are You Choosing to Have?

What kind of day are you choosing to have?

It can be so easy for a life event to take control of our mood for the day; that is IF we allow that to happen. We have a choice every moment on the type of day we are going to have. A recent conversation with a girlfriend really drove this point home with me.

My girlfriend Paula was sharing her morning snafu as we were enjoying coffee that morning. Her daughter had a sleep-over the night before and her daughter’s friend parked her car in Paula’s large driveway. Paula, not realizing the car was in the driveway, backed into it with her car as she was leaving early that morning.

Paula shared that she felt awful since the girl’s car was brand new. She didn’t want to wake the girls; so she left a note for her daughter letting her know and that she would give her insurance information to her friend.

Paula ended her story by saying this is a bad day. The clock had not even struck 8 a.m. and Paula was already setting her entire day up to be bad.

“Is it really a bad day?” I asked Paula. I told Paula she had a choice as to whether or not this was going to be a rain cloud over her entire day.

I told Paula, after listening to her story, that she did all the right things. She has car insurance, the entire purpose of which is to fix accidents. I reminded her that she realized what she did, left a note and will ensure the car is repaired. In addition, she was being courteous to her daughter and friend by letting them sleep in; waking them up at 6:00 in the morning was not going to change the facts.

I suggested to Paula that she say to herself ‘Today is a good day.’ Paula repeated back ‘Today is going to be a good day.’ I corrected her by repeating ‘Today is a good day’. I reminded Paula that she is human, she accidentally ran into a car. And further reminded her that she did all the right steps to correct her mistake. She brightened up and said ‘You’re right … Today IS a good day.’

Paula went off to work. But the story doesn’t end there.

We were talking the next day and Paula said to me, “you will not believe what happened when I got to work.” Paula does fundraiser calling for a non-profit organization. She said she got to work and the morning incident was still weighing heavy on her. As she was getting ready to make her first call, she said ‘Your words snapped me back into choosing the day I was going to have’. Out loud she said ‘Today is a good day’.

She then picked up the phone and made her first call. That call ended up being the largest contribution for the day, not only for Paula but for the entire call center.

Today is a good day!