How to Recover From a Challenging Week at Work

Balderdash, crikey, crumbs, bother, drat, heck, gosh these are just some of the printable expletives I have used in this last week. It has been a week of weeks – Murphy’s Law kicked in big style, and I got lost in it!

To remind you Murphy's Law ("If anything can go wrong, it will") was born at Edwards Air Force Base in 1949 at North Base. It was named after Captain Edward A. Murphy, an engineer working on Air Force Project MX981, (a project) designed to see how much sudden deceleration a person can stand in a crash.

One day, after finding that a transducer was wired wrong, he cursed the technician responsible and said, "If there is any way to do it wrong, he'll find it." The contractor's project manager kept a list of "laws" and added this one, which he called Murphy's Law.

By the end of the week, I feel it was a self-fulfilling prophecy – I was inadvertently creating the ‘wrongness’ and taking it with me as I could not let go of each issue before I moved through the week to the next thing. I arrived at every transaction, meeting, conversation, email, and decision in the wrong frame of mind and could not see straight and probably made things worse.

So, what can you do to get back on track? 

Immediately 

• ·Remember the next day is a new day with new possibilities and opportunities.
• ·A good night’s sleep is usually helpful.
• ·Stay hydrated to keep your body working properly.
• ·Talk to someone you trust and sound it out.
• ·Control your emotions, when things have gone into ‘wrong’ mode, leave emotions at the door. They completely get in the way of you making rational, conscious, realistic decisions.
• ·Stay calm and remain your composure.
• ·Analyse the situation, get deep into the reasons why it happened, and be reasonable about what you’re going to do about it. If you can recognise and define what the issue is, you’ve done half the work.

Medium term

Practicing positive thinking helps too. The power of a positive business owner mindset can be the key to success. Positivity has been linked to increased ability to solve problems; more energy; increased resiliency; better decision making and can even be infectious!  With all these benefits, it seems crucial that a positive mindset should be the foundation upon which any business is built.

Long Term

Take time out to think clearly about the bigger picture and what it is you need for each step along the way to execute your business goals.  Be discerning of the people around you - which person is the best at what job, which clients will take you the furthest and what it is that you feel you should be doing to make your business more efficient. For more practical advice and guidance to help achieve your business objectives, why not get in touch with the team here at SBA. We're here to help.