Tips to Improve a Bad Day at Work

No day, week, month or year is perfect in any career. Inevitably in the course of a day we all encounter highs and lows. This is especially true in marketing and sales. It is important to learn skills that help you neutralize and balance these highs and lows to ensure that the lows are not all consuming and that the highs do not cause complacency.

Try these tips to improve the "flow" of your day, regardless of the highs and lows you experience:

Goal Setting: Whenever we set goals, we create opportunities to achieve success. Goal setting is a good distraction when things are not going your way, it is a great strategy to get your mind in a better place - more geared towards accomplishing things vs. wallowing...

Pause/Take a Break - Relfect: Try to avoid jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Take time to breath and reflect when a situation does not go your way, or you feel challenged. Take a walk, go to the coffee shop, think through the situation and think about different approaches to the problem. I guarantee you that you will come up with some fresh solutions that help you navigate the situation further...

Seek Input/Feedback: A reliable "go to" when you are stuck or experiencing a problem at work is to turn to the people you trust. It's always good to bounce a situation off of a trusted colleague whose opinion you value. They will see a different angle and thus give you some new perspectives that you may not have thought of. At the very least, people in your inner circle will encourage you and remind you how fantastic you are - that helps too :)

New Ideas: The goal of working your way out of a bad day is to spend your energy and time on activities, actions and thoughts that are productive and positive. If you find yourself in a rut, a negative/challenging situation or did not get the outcome you wanted, make a "good list." This can be a list of new ideas that you want to try to be more successful, make a list of new customers/prospects you want to target, self help books you would like to read, a new program that you would like to start, etc.

Productivity: Ultimately, the best way to improve a not so good day is to stay productive. Self talk is always helpful and reminding yourself of your successes can motivate you to overcome any barrier or problem. Push through. Keep going, keep trying. It is a cliche, but there really are no failures in the business world, only lessons!