8 Ways to Turn a Rough Day Around

Regardless of the quality of your day, you can choose to make the most of what you’ve been dealt and turn it around. You might have to change your objectives and expectations, but life is a fluid situation. Tough times call for a change in attitude and approach!

Try these ideas to turn around your bad day and have the last laugh:

1. Laugh. Try to find a little humor in your bad luck. Sometimes, things go so badly, it’s almost funny. Laugh at your misfortune and give yourself a little mental break. You can always find a reason to laugh if you look hard enough.
   • If you can’t find a way to laugh about your situation, watch a funny video on YouTube and make yourself laugh. Call a funny friend and ask him to tell you his best joke. Laughter can help you salvage your day.
     
2. Recalibrate. It might be time to change your outlook and expectations for the day. Your plans might have to change. You might decide that surviving the day is the best you can do today! Make the best of it.
   
3. Create a new to-do list. This is the next step in your recalibration. Throw out your old to-do list and make a new one. Maybe you’ve accomplished nothing so far today, but you can still do something with the rest of the day. What can you do with the time you have left in this day? Be positive, but reasonable.
4. Accept the challenge. View a bad day as life testing you. Are you smart enough and tough enough to succeed in turning your day around? Do you know how to persevere and outlast the challenge before you? Let’s find out!
   
5. Look for the positive. A bad day doesn’t make for a bad life, though it can feel that way sometimes. List a few things in your life that are going well. Maybe your child is doing well in school, or your basketball team won last night. Anything positive will do.
   
6. Take a break. Get into a new environment for a few minutes. Go outside or head to the coffee shop. Get a little fresh air and a change of scenery.
   • Sometimes it’s easier to get your head on straight if you can get away for 30 minutes. You might want to take someone along on your break. Everything will still be there when you get back.

1. Talk to a friend. A chat with a good friend can do wonders for you and your day. Which friend would you call to talk you down off a ledge? Give them a call and tell them about your horrible day. A good friend helps on a bad day.
   
2. Take a walk. A walk gives you a break, fresh air, a change in scenery, and a little exercise. A walk is a great time to unwind or to plot and scheme your great afternoon comeback. Walking is good for you, too.

Bad days come with the territory. You can choose to run away and hide, or you can face the day with a renewed sense of purpose and make the best of a bad situation.

Most people fail to take advantage of good days. If you can accomplish something worthwhile with a bad day, you’re a force to be reckoned with!

Search for the humor in the situation and make a new plan for the day. See how much you can accomplish today, even though it seems the deck is stacked against you.