Showerthought: my worst day at work last week was actually the best thing that could've happened

I work at a small print shop on Grand Avenue, and last Thursday was a total disaster from start to finish. A big order of wedding invitations got smudged because the ink dried wrong, and I had to redo all 200 pieces by hand. Then my boss called and said I forgot to set the margins on another job, so that got wasted too. I was so frustrated I almost walked out at lunch. But something weird happened around 3pm when I stopped caring so much about being perfect. I started just focusing on one sheet at a time instead of worrying about the whole pile. By quitting time I had finished everything and even fixed a problem with the old printer that's been jamming for weeks. Has anyone else had a day where things went so bad it actually helped you reset your approach?

3 comments

3 Comments

jakewhite20d ago

You ever have one of those days where the only thing you did right was not set the shop on fire? I spent a whole afternoon fixing a mistake I made that morning, and by the end I felt like a genius for figuring out how to clean ink out of a carpet. Sometimes hitting rock bottom just means you find the reset button you didn't know you needed.

robert65920d ago

Hold up... you said you stopped caring about being perfect around 3pm. Was that a conscious choice or did you just get so tired that your brain gave up and shifted into survival mode? Because I've had both happen and they feel totally different. Like one time I was so mad my hands were shaking and then I just went numb, didn't care about anything, and somehow finished three jobs in two hours. But another day I actually talked myself into letting go of perfection and it felt way calmer, more like a reset than a crash. Which one was it for you?

claire_young7619d ago

Ugh, I've been there with the numb crash where you just power through, and it's like your brain hit a wall and said "we're done here." But the "I actually talked myself into letting go" version sounds way more sustainable, honestly. Maybe it's just me but that calmer reset is something I try to aim for, even if I don't always get there.