Last week I had a rough day.
On Monday I realized I didn’t have any projects lined up in April, so I got busy and sent out follow-up emails, but heard nothing back on Tuesday. (Yes, expecting to hear a response in 24hrs is a little extreme, but here we are anyway.)
By Tuesday, I was in the “I guess I’m done being a consultant” rut (yes, again.. a little extreme, but this is the roller coaster, and I’m taking you all with me.) I even looked closely at a few jobs that popped up. I spent a lot of time worrying about what wasn’t happening and things that were completely out of my control. It affected my attitude and my parenting. It was a dark cloud that I allowed to hang over me.
As I do, I tweeted about being on the struggle bus. Immediately, I began to receive support (honestly, support I didn’t even know I needed.) The words of encouragement allowed me to see outside of myself for a minute, and in that minute I realized that I was allowing this worry to encompass me. I was choosing to focus on the things I couldn’t control, and that’s a quick way to be very unhappy.
So, I changed my mind. Rather than worry about something that may or may not be an issue in 5 weeks, I decided to focus on what was going on that day, and to choose to focus only on the things I can control.
I finished up writer’s briefs for an amazing client, I completed a survey for a market research client. And by the end of the week, I had four more leads in my inbox and signed a new market research client.
It’s crazy how my perception and worry of potential events impacted my thoughts and behavior. And I’d love to sit here and tell you’ve I’ve learned my lesson and this will never happen again, but I don’t think that’s true. What is true is that I turned the bus around sooner than I would have 4 years ago. And I can only hope that I continue to shorten the amount of time I allow myself to sit on the struggle bus.
I hope the same for you too. If you’re on the struggle bus today, I want to encourage you to find a way to turn your bus around or jump off altogether. <3