Meg's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

I woke up in the morning with a sore throat and painful sinuses. The expensive humidifier I bought had run dry in the middle of the night. I knew it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

I got up to fix breakfast and nobody was ready for it. By the time they were ready the eggs were overcooked and the toast was cold, but I made them eat it anyway. It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

I forgot to bring in the Christmas lights and artificial garland I had bought in Denver so I had to go outside into the cold and wind to get them. When I opened the back of the car the reusable shopping bags I keep in there blew down the street. One of them lodged under a car and I had to roll around on the ground to get it. It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

I was carrying a big armload of garland into the house when I missed the step onto the deck and fell, twisting my knee. I wasn’t hurt, but when I got up I had to chase after all the garland before it blew away. It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

When I got inside I realized that I had stepped in some animal poop. I had to clean it off my shoe with paper towels and cotton swabs. Then I had to go around and clean up all the places I had been. It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

I started to put the lights onto the garland and kept ending up with too many lights at the end or too few. It took me three times to get it right and then I had to do it all over five more times. It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

I took a bunch of medicine to help me deal with the cold I’ve had for more than three weeks. The medicine made me feel Sleepy, Dopey and Grumpy so I made an appointment to see the Doc. I was not Happy. It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

I packed the humidifier back into its box. It’s going back to the store tomorrow. I am going to drink some hot tea with lemon, ginger and a huge slug of bourbon. I know the best way to get over this day is to sleep through it.

It’s been a TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY!

My thanks to Judith Viorst, author of the wonderful children’s book, Alexander’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, for helping me deal with my day.

Exploring Your Path

I call my clients searchers—people who have spent many years searching for something that will give their lives meaning. They have followed dozens of different paths, but have never found the right one. Each time they find a path that feels promising they follow it eagerly only to have it turn out to be a dead end for them. By the time I meet them the pain and frustration of the search has become almost unbearable.

A client of mine had come to this point again. A promising path seemed to have suddenly dead-ended for her. She felt herself losing interest and could imagine herself boxing up all her materials and moving on as she had so many times before. If you are a searcher you can probably relate. I know I do. I was a searcher myself and I have the boxes to prove it.

After we had talked for a little while my client began to see her situation a little differently. Instead of thinking that she has to start her journey all over again she now looks at this as a brief trip down a side road. Everything she did and learned relates to her overall journey. This path may not have been the right one for her but she is definitely going in the right direction.

It has been said that life is a journey, not a destination—trite but true. Every avenue you take along the way is an exploration. Some avenues you know right away are not going to wok. Others you have to follow for a while before you realize they are not going to take you where you want to be. It is also possible that for you the exploration is the destination (more on that later).

If you are a searcher take a little time to look at your journey from a new perspective. Instead of looking at your career attempts as failures, look at what they all had in common. What did you love about each one? What did you hate? When you find those common threads they will point the way to your true direction in life. Have a great journey.