How to Navigate a Bad Day in Business

Let's face it.  Sometimes you just have bad days in business.  Days where things just don't go your way despite everything you do.  We've all been there and there will be more days like that in the future.  It is part of the journey of entrepreneurship.

The most important thing about bad days is how we respond to them.  After all, they are going to happen, right?  So, we should do our best not to make them worse.

The first thing to do when a day does not go your way is to recognize it for what it is - one day out of many and it will pass.  Not everything is going to go as planned and some things are just going to fail.  The most important thing we can do at these times is to separate emotion and logic and not let emotion get the best of us or drive our decisions.  We must think logically.  By all means take a few minutes to get your emotions out in whatever way is best for you - but don't take actions based on those emotions.   

Next, once we have seperated our emotions and have put them in the past, we must focus on the things we can control and maximize our efforts there.  It does not good to worry or put thought into things we cannot control.  We must cope with those things, but focus our efforts and our actions in the areas that we do have control and can affect outcomes.  

Once we have identified the areas we can control and are focused on them, then we must take action and start working toward better outcomes either to resolve the issue(s) or to pivot around them.  The key is to get going and build momentum so you get passed the problems of the day and back to business.  

As an example, I have a trading business.  Not every trade is going to go my way and sometimes, when I am just about to harvest my profits, the market can turn and go the other way putting me into a losing position.  As you can imagine, this can be very aggravating and cause a bad trading day.  But, I cannot control the markets - I can only take aciton on the things I have control over.  This is why I have specific rules that I follow and most of the time, things work out as planned.  When they don't, I remove the emotional response by following my rules and working the trade to the best outcome which sometimes is a loss, but not to the level it could have been if I panicked and let emotions dictate my actions.  Because I seperate emotions and focus taking action on the things I can control, I am able to achieve better results.

The next time you have a bad day in your business, use this strategy to help you navigate it and come out on top!