by Dr. Stevie Dawn
How are you feeling today -- on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being “ugh” and 10 being “awesome”? Got that number in your head? Now, think about how little it takes for that number to go down. One call from your boss, a text from your mother-in-law, or spilling coffee on your white pants and “BOOM,” all of a sudden your 8 turns into a 4. The scariest part of this is that your number comes out your mouth. Yes, you tend to show your feelings through your communication. On rough days, you are more abrupt and terse with people. On good days, you are friendly and easy-going. For these reasons and more, we need to keep raising that number.
Emotional Resilience is the ability to bounce back to an 8 quickly. But how do you do that? First, you have to trigger your happiness. What triggers your joy? What makes you feel good? Music, photos, videos, walking outside, calling a friend? There are many different ways you can trigger your happiness to help lift that number.
Second, remember it’s an incident not a lifetime. Most of the things that bother us are short-lived: a conversation you dread, but it’s over in 20 minutes; having to lead a meeting, but it only happens once a month. Keep that in perspective and focus on the future.
Third, always ask yourself positive questions. It’s easy to focus on the worst that can happen, but let’s change that mindset. What’s the best that could happen today? Asking yourself positive questions will keep that number rising and allow you to bounce back faster.
No matter what the situation, we all have bad days. The trick is to trigger your happiness and bounce back fast, so you can get back to living an awesome life.
About our guest contributor: Dr. Stevie Dawn, owner of Stevie Dawn Inspires, is a motivational speaker and coach, focused on helping people unleash success in their personal and professional lives. With over 20 years of teaching and training experience, Dr. Stevie Dawn approaches every engagement with humor, inspiration, and energy to get people moving toward their best lives. She holds a master’s degree in sociology from Wichita State University and a doctorate in leadership from Colorado State University.