Last week sucked. 

• 1 trip to the Genius Bar
• 2 crying episodes in public
• 3 trips to local computer recovery experts 
• 4 tech support calls
• 5 new pieces of equipment 
• 6 hours of configuring a new laptop
• 7 days without a computer

But it wasn’t just the broken computer, it was everything. Or was it? Everything in my life went wrong last week. Or did it? I thought so at the time.

• Without access to my files, I couldn’t work on some projects, therefore my book would NEVER launch.
• The cover on my toilet tank cracked because EVERYTHING in my life ALWAYS breaks.
• I was completely ON MY OWN with no support at all.

Can you relate? (rhetorical question) Day in and day out, we all manage an inordinate amount of responsibility – work, parents, kids, life’s common stressors – but it’s a precarious balancing act. And when one thing goes wrong and our house of cards starts to collapse, we panic. It suddenly seems like NOTHING in our lives is okay. But that simply isn’t true. There is always something good. 

I knew last week that I was engaging in all or nothing thinking – I wrote about it in my book. It’s a dangerous place to wallow and it felt awful. So what can you do when that happens? Well in hope that it helps, here’s what I did:

First, I threw myself a pity party. I am a big believer in pity parties with decorations, party favors, Oreos and Savvy B.  When life kicks me in the teeth, or the computer monitor, I think it’s perfectly okay to get upset about it. But I always set an ending time for my parties because fat, drunk and sad is no way to go through life working daughter.

Then, I played my newest power anthem on repeat until I didn’t need to anymore. Ninety minutes of Tom Petty’s Won’t Back Down did the trick. 

“You can stand me up at the gates of hell
But I won’t back down
No I’ll stand my ground, won’t be turned around
… and I won’t back down.”

 So next time something goes wrong (and we know it will), don’t panic, throw a party, play your anthem (lots of choices here) and get back at it!