Today I woke up with the blues.
Not depression – I’ve been there and I know what that feels like – but an all-pervasive feeling of sadness and brain fog that I knew would be a barrier to achieving the things I needed to today.
What I would normally do:
Plough into the day as best I could.
Find it difficult to stay focused.
Do sub-standard work, with sub-optimal results.
Kick myself for being unproductive and/or weak.
So that’s a tried and tested strategy. I’ve tested it quite a lot! Yeah, it doesn’t work well. Unless your goal is self-flagellation and loathing!
A wise man once said “if you keep doing what you’ve always done, then you’ll always get what you’ve always got”.
Wise words indeed. And words I often quote when talking to others about strategies for pulling themselves out of slumps.
But isn’t it so much tougher when it’s ourselves we are dealing with?
So, I decided to write this short piece to remind myself of the kinds of things I would suggest to others facing something similar. Different strokes for different folks though, not everything works for everyone!
Be kind to yourself. Days like this happen sometimes and that’s okay. Take a moment and allow yourself to acknowledge how you feel. Mentally and physically.
Do something mindfully. Meditate if that’s your thing. Draw a picture, play the piano. Take a walk (without your phone!). But something that channels your mind totally.
Organise your working space. Even if it’s just rearranging the piles into fewer piles! Create yourself space.
Make a list with one thing on it. One thing you want to achieve today. Make it small. Make it specific. That’s your primary focus.
Do one thing at a time. Literally one thing only. Finish it properly before you try doing anything else.
There’s lots of advice out there for breaking out of a funk. I’m going to try and take some of my own advice.
My one thing was to write this short blog piece. It’s taken me a while, but I did it and my one-item To Do list is complete. Everything else today is a bonus now.
What a relief!