Tantrum Time: What to do when things go wrong

Just now, something went badly wrong, and so I am writing today’s blog as an attempt to self-soothe.

Twenty minutes ago I was INFURIATED, but already I feel better as I relay into print this hapless tale of disappointment.

All week I had been looking forward to my coaching session at 1pm near Birmingham with a business coach.

I had prepped my materials, thought about my vision, planned the journey with handwritten directions (I’m old-school), and even ironed a shirt! (ironing is the work of the devil, so not common in mein haus)

I knew it would take me 2 hours 4 minutes to drive the 120.6 miles, so I left my house at 10:17am, with 2 hours and 43 minutes to do it in, you know, just in case things went wrong.

And then I got in my car... and the piece of sh!t wouldn’t start.

I don’t give up that easily though, so tried many dozen times to get it going, encouraged it with various colourful names, and rang two manly men for advice and assistance - to no avail. Then I thought I would try and push it backwards down my drive to try and bumpstart it - only to smash the hanging basket planter off the wall with my car door.

Then I got really desperate and went and asked my elderly pensioner neighbour if he could help. He tried, bless him, but couldn’t, mainly because my drive is uphill, tight and narrow, with no chance of using another car to jump start it.

I am, in the words of Colonel Abrams, Trapped, like a fool, I’m in a cage, I can’t get out…

Now I’m sure you’ve been there yourself, and experienced that overwhelming frustration and downright infuriation about things you’ve planned going wrong because of external causes.

What I hate most of all in situations like this is the utter sense of hopelessness. You’ve exhausted all other options, and it is exasperating that still you can’t do anything to make it right in the timeframe.

So as I sit here and wait for Green Flag to come and do some manly mechanical magic, I contemplate how to cheer myself up from my bitter disappointment.

I read a top tip yesterday in Jen Sincero’s book ‘You Are A Badass’ that said when bad things happen, you should turn it around by starting with ‘I’m glad this happened because…’

So here goes:

I’m glad my car broke down because…

 - gosh this is hard, I’m not glad at all… no, keep going…

- it’s a warning that something is not quite right with my car, which could have led to something more dangerous.

 - it’s a lesson that life occasionally gets in the way of plans.

 - it’s shown to me that I at least try to be reactive and resourceful in times of need.

 - it proves that bad things happen to everyone at times, through no fault of their own.

- it’s made me grateful of every single other time that the car didn’t let me down.

- it’s made me realise that I can’t have my own way all the time

- it’s shown me that having a shouting, swearing tantrum has absolutely no effect, other than putting myself in a bad mood. So therefore it’s pointless wasting energy doing it in future.

- it helps me put problems into perspective.

Nobody died, and only death is unfixable. So get a grip of yourself.

Feel a bit better now, after I’ve had a word with myself.

I’m glad I read that top tip yesterday… because it’s helped today when things went wrong.

And thus I hope passing on this tip helps you avoid a tantrum when things go wrong.



Take care, and have a lovely day,

Kellyann x x x