In a recent blog posting (August 11th), IT expert Colby Kultgen (Founder of “1% Better,” former accountant, future author and self-development content creator on Linkedin) flags as a mental trap some of us entrepreneurs (or other business types) fall into: what I’d call the “defeatist blues.”
Colby writes from Seattle: “We’ve all been guilty of this. . . . Letting one bad moment [in a day] convince us the whole day is shot.”
“The best strategy I’ve found for stopping this” he writes, “is ‘The Four-Quarters Method’ from Gretchen Rubin: ‘Instead of feeling that you’ve blown the day and thinking, “I’ll get back on track tomorrow,” try treating each day as a set of four quarters:
Morning
Midday
Afternoon
Evening
If you blow one quarter, you can just get back on track for the next.
Fail small, not big.’ ”
Colby concludes with his usual precision: “Don’t let a 10-minute problem consume as 24-hour day. The email was uncomfortable. The train was late. The conversation went poorly. Feel it, deal with it, then allow the rest of your life to remain intact.”
In another, earlier register, many of us have read this advice: “Don’t sweat the small stuff.” And, as those with more experience and a higher bank balance might say, later on, “It’s all the small stuff!”
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What do you do, when part of your day goes “south?” Do you have a strategy for sidestepping the trap of “defeatist blues?”