Evan Carmichael woke up late and felt his day was wasted until he switched to writing his book. Research shows people get happiest doing the opposite of what made them unhappy. Michael Jordan never gave up on a day either, no matter how it started.
Chapters
Turnaround. Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation. Michael Jordan. Tuesday morning I woke up at 11 AM and I felt terrible about it. Talk about a late start to the day. The night before I was up reading about Martin Luther King and just as I was about to go to bed I find out that OOTP Baseball was finally out. It's my favorite baseball computer game and I had ordered this new release months ago. The company teased me with hints of the features they were putting in for months, and it was finally here. So of course I had to download it and start playing it. I then look up at my screen and notice that it's 3 AM. What just happened? Waking up at 11 sucks for me. I have a usual routine I go through, and it threw me way off. I had just over 4 hours before I had to go pick up my son from school. I felt incredibly guilty and unproductive. I hated that I wasted so much time and now I was behind. I almost felt like giving up on the day because I had little time left. It was time for a turnaround. I remember watching a presentation a few years ago about a guy who tracked his happiness a few times per day. He just asked himself, "How happy am I on a scale of 1 to 10 right now?" and he collected the data. He compared the numbers to the activities he was doing so he could find out what made him happy versus unhappy. The only thing I remember from the presentation was that he was least happy when he felt unproductive or stuck in a problem. What was really interesting was that he felt most happy right after he was really unhappy by doing the exact opposite activity. So, for example, if he was unhappy because he was unproductive, he became very happy by being super productive. I needed my turnaround. Instead of feeling down all day, I poured myself into writing my book. I made some serious progress and fixed a few sections that I wasn't quite happy with. After a few hours of work, I had a real sense of accomplishment. It felt so good. I couldn't believe that only a few hours ago I was so depressed. Life is going to throw you lots of surprises. It can be so easy to get down on yourself when you don't see results, when you don't see momentum happening, when you feel unproductive. Don't give up on the day. Pour whatever remaining energy you have into something that is important to you. It'll make you come alive and put you right back in a positive mindset. When you feel down, start your turnaround. Amazing things will happen. Believe.
