5 Steps to Fixing It When Life Throws You a Curveball

You’re cruising along at work, or homehanging out. You’re having a perfectly fine day, when – whammo – somethingcomes out of nowhere and seriously messes it up.

I’m not talking devastating,earth-shattering events, I mean those zingers that ruin your mood and yourgroove.

The hot water heater breaks, or your puppymakes the new rug its personal commode. Your blog goes down just as your latestpost goes viral on Twitter. Your boss tells you she needs that report beforeyou go home, as you were packing up for the weekend.

Any of this sound familiar?

You work hard and live right, but sometimeslife throws you an annoying or time-consuming curveball, despite your bestefforts. It happens to everyone.

But it makes you mad, or anxious, and itdoesn’t feel fair.

And you’re right – it’s not. But it’s life.So before you throw up your hands and call the day a loss, here’s how to takecare of it and move on with grace:

1 Acknowledge that whatever happened is nofun. Say it out loud, with feeling: “This SUCKS.” Better yet: “This sucks.”Feel free to flail your arms or jump up and down for emphasis. (If you’re atwork, make sure you do this in private!) Here are other ways you can let outyour frustration.

2 Take a few deep breaths. Feel your bloodpressure dropping. Take a few more. (Or try these de-stressors.)

3 Ask yourself: Will this thing kill you oranyone you love? Will it bankrupt you?No? Then you’re fine. Annoyed maybe, butfine.

4 Think about the big picture. Will thisglitch matter in the long run? Probably not. It might slow you down a bit, butit’s probably not causing irreparable damage.

5 What can you do right now to fix theproblem? Do it now. (Call the plumber, run to the store for rug cleaner,contact your blog host, make a cup of coffee and finish the report.)

Now you’ve taken care of the immediateproblem, but you’re still stewing. Here are a few more tips to set yourselfstraight:

Sit down with a notebook and write out thegood things that happened in the last week or so. You’ll see that this curveballis just a blip.

Take care of something else that needsdoing. It can be small, but something so you feel like the day wasn’t a totalwaste.

Get your mind off it. Work out, call afriend, read a magazine. Obsessing doesn’t do any good, and every time youcatch yourself, redirect your mind. Think how you’ll laugh about it later. It’sa cliché, but it’s true.

When it comes down to it, you just have tolet it go. Take a walk or a bath, have a cup of tea or a glass of wine, get agood night’s sleep, and start fresh tomorrow. That’s the beauty of life: youget a do-over, every single day.

The truth is, the more you deal with thesekinds of issues the better off you are. Not that I want anything less thanunicorns and rainbows for you, but there’s power in experience.

After you handle a few of these withefficiency and aplomb, they won’t upset you so much when they come up nexttime. You’ll zip right through and move on to the rest of your day.Congratulations! You’ve become a person who gets stuff done, no matter what.