Have you ever had one of those days when nothing seems to go quite right? Your hair is a mess, you’re running late for work, your  outfit isn’t as flattering as it looked on the hanger (I swear that happens to me at least once or twice a week). It can feel like a really crappy way to start your day. You’re rushed, your schedule is off track and you haven’t even left the house yet and now you’re starting to feel a little flustered and a lot anxious. I’m pretty sure, in fact, we’ve all been there.

I want to remind you not to let those things overwhelm you or ruin your outlook. Getting your day off to the wrong start can really set a negative tone for the rest of the entire day. But it doesn’t have to.

The other day, my sister and I were headed to the mall with her young children. On the way, we decided to stop and get something to eat. We stopped at a restaurant, had a meal and were getting ready to go, when, of course, the kids had to use the bathroom. My sister took them to the bathroom in which one stall was broken and the other stall was occupied. By this time the kids were restless and antsy. So we decided to skip the mall altogether and just go home. Shortly after that I saw on the news that the mall we were headed to had been evacuated because of a carbon monoxide leak. 30 people were hospitalized and one dead. We just missed that.

I think we can all come up with at least one or two stories of how some minor glitch in our plans helped us to avoid some minor inconvenience or even a tragedy. Like the day you decided to skip taking the shortcut home and you missed a major traffic jam. You feel grateful when you find out what you avoided, right? You may even feel protected, like someone is looking out for you.

It’s the same thing with those days that you think aren’t going quite right. Instead of being annoyed by what’s going wrong, think about what could be working in your favorite that you’re not even aware of. Take a deep breath and stay grounded in the moment. Imagine that a higher force is working on your behalf behind the scenes. instead of allowing yourself to be annoyed by what’s going wrong, imagine that those things are actually going right, you’re just not aware of what the purpose is.

There may even be a lesson for you in this. Maybe it’s time for you to develop a new routine. Are you missing out on some really good moments in your life because you’re not mentally present? We shouldn’t be rushing through life simply moving from one point to the other without enjoying the experience.

The fact is there will always be things that we can’t control. And even the things that we think we can control will not always go right. Our goal should be to be in command of how we react when things get “out of control”. That’s the key to appreciating the experience.

Have you ever had ‘one of those days’? How do you handle it?

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