If you know me, you know that I love a good reframe; typically negative into positive stories. When we reframe them, we remove the negativity surrounding that particular story.
I was in Marshalls the other day when I hear this woman loudly speaking on her cell phone and full confession, my default is negative as in “really? come on. Do we all need to hear your public conversations?” I find that very annoying.
Until I hear loudly speak into the phone; “look, just because you’re having a bad moment, make sure you don’t allow this moment to turn into you having a bad day.”
I froze where I was standing. I thought “oh my gosh, that was brilliant.” So, I continue to listen. She’s wrapping up the call. And she repeats it again. Now, I am so intrigued.
Now, I want to high five this woman. Yeah, that’s the dork that I am. But should I just say nothing? Sorry, you know I had to say something. So, she hangs up the phone, and I looked at her and said, “I couldn’t help but overhear you, but that was genius!”
She says, “Oh, yeah, that was my son. I know him and he was going to make (whatever was going on) into having a bad day. I feel like I say that more often these days.”
From mom to child. This was so genius. What a great lesson. I was also really impressed that a son would hear that language from a mom. I don’t know why I would say that, but I thought it was daughter. I digress.
I then gave her accolades. “That was stinking brilliant. I applaud you. I’m stealing that.”
I got to thinking it’s so true. Just wait five minutes, 50 minutes, half a day, tomorrow: whatever you are lamenting about right now is going to shift. It’s not going to hold the weight or the power that it currently has. Give it some time.
Then I started to think of all the words that you could supplement, you could plug in for bad.
If you’re having a challenging moment, don’t turn it into a challenging day.
If you’re having a fear-filled moment, don’t turn that into a fearful day. I just I kept thinking about all the things.
If you’re having a bad attitude moment, make sure you don’t turn it into a bad attitude day. It’s genius.
I must say, I’m glad this woman was loudly speaking on her cell phone in a public space, because I gleaned a nugget of genius from this mom. I may have made myself look silly with my acknowledging her, but hey, us moms have to stick together, right?
Don’t turn this blank moment into you having a blank day. Fill in the blanks for yourself. What do you think? Thoughts? Ask at JanetKrebs.com. You know how to reach me.
Bye for now.