The Power of This 1 Word to Help Transform Your Mood When S#!t Happens!

I’ve been working on creating an online course for pregnant women and mothers, over the past couple of months.

A couple of weeks ago, when I was doing some editing, I lost HOURS and HOURS worth of work.

Yep, work that I had poured hours of mental energy, passion and creativity into.

Pooof! – just like that, I clicked the wrong button, and it was gone!

At first I hesitated, and thought that surely, I’d be able to click backwards on my pages, and find it. Surely, it must have been backed-up somewhere in the platform I was using?

Nope. I couldn’t find it.
Nothing.
Nada.
Gone, without a trace…

Never to be seen again.

I contacted the help desk, and explained what had happened. Surely, their IT experts could find it in a flash and resolve this for me.

Nope. Nothing.

They did explain what happened, though…
It appears I made a rookie error (as a first time course creator).

Darn!

A part of me was really guttered. I was quietly annoyed and really frustrated, and felt at a loss for all of my hard work.

I felt it in the pit of my stomach.

So much time invested – for nothing, it seemed.

Now, I could have held onto that intense feeling of frustration, and let it simmer, let it grow, let it affect the rest of my day, my interactions with my children, and my husband…

It could have festered (like it did all those years ago, when I lost a major university assignment, after spending hours typing it up in the good old computer room on campus… 18 years on, and I still remember that night!)

But, I knew that I didn’t want that to happen.

Once I received my reply from the help desk, and understood my work was gone for good, I took a moment to reflect on what had happened.

I thought about what went wrong.

I thought about what I needed to do, to ensure it would never happen again.

I knew in that moment that my emotional state could have moved in one of two directions.

RESISTANCE to what I was experiencing (welcoming greater stress, frustration, anger, anxiety, etc… I’m sure you know how it goes).

Or,

ACCEPTANCE.

I chose the latter.

I knew that I had to accept the situation for what it was, in order to move forward, sooner rather than later.

So, I took this experience as an OPPORTUNITY.

An opportunity to make a change, to alter my work in some way, and make it even better.

An opportunity to think ahead when working on something new, and always have a back up in place!

A week or so has passed, and today I went back into my course, and started re-creating.

Because that’s what I needed to do… I’m moving forward again.

Not allowing myself to get stuck in the LOSS and FRUSTRATION of what happened.

Because, I cant change the past.

However, I can control my actions and decisions moving forward. I can choose to start afresh.

I can change my thoughts – and feel more hopeful about what I’m now creating.

So, here I am, feeling quite positive and optimistic about my work, because I’m back on track now…

And I didn’t get bogged down, and turn into a raving, lunatic mama who lost her work (yay for me – Lol!).

By learning to ACCEPT something that happens – as crappy as it may be – can often times, be an opportunity to learn and grow in some way.

Would can you change?

What can you do better?

What do you hope to never do again?

What would you rather be feeling instead? – and how can you allow yourself to experience this feeling in some other way?

Wendy

Wendy Gilroy is a Mother of 2, and a professional Counsellor for women. Wendy has a degree in Psychology, a Masters degree in Addiction Studies, and a Diploma of Counselling. She lives in Sydney, Australia, and offers secure ONLINE counselling for women around the world, as well as telephone, face-to-face and home visit services for  mums.

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Disclaimer: This is for information purposes only. If you have any concerns about your physical or mental health, please consult your healthcare practitioner for medical advice.