Steering Into The Skid
If you are having a bad day, most people think oh my God, I am depressed; accordingly, there must be something wrong. Maybe I hate my job – my marriage – my life – even my dog! What shall I do? I am depressed and need to panic!
Well, instead of flipping out about this, consider this analysis, which is that human beings are simply not designed to be happy every day. And if you were – logically – happiness wouldn’t even be happiness, would it? It would be a steady state you are always in. So when you are down, as long as it isn’t every day, consider doing what I do, which I call Steering into the Skid.
It likens it to when you are driving a car and you hit a sheet of ice and start to skid. Your instinct is to slam on the brakes, which is the worst thing to do since you just make the skid worse. It is the same with having a bad day. Instead of bumming out, what I do I get super narcissistic and do the following:
- Get Chinese food – the greasiest and most delicious – shitloads of it
- And yes ice cream afterwards – lots of it – a full pint maybe.
- Scotch – too much of it
- I watch my favorite movie — Major League – or sometimes Major League II
- Then, go to bed.
And – strange thing – the next morning I feel just great. Happy as a clam and all excited about life.
Stranger still, if you ask me what I was bumming out about the day before, usually I cannot even remember.
