Last Saturday I played in a tennis playoff match and it didn’t go well. My partner and I got pummeled 6-1, 6-1. Personally, I did not play well at all. I am not taking anything away from the women who won, they were outstanding and deserved to win. I simply could not dig myself out of my own hole and the more I tried, the worse it got. It was bad.

Have you ever felt that way, like things simply weren’t going your way? Was it at work or at home? Often, when this happens, we tend to blame others as well as the situation. I mean, the others are a bit inextricable from the situation, right? They played a little bit of a role in this as well, right? I didn’t play myself at tennis—others were there. Even though sharing the whole story is true, there’s only one thing we have the power to change, and that’s us.

Today, let’s take a good look at our current situation. Remove all of the components of this situation until you get to just you. Now ask yourself, “What can I do to make this situation better?” I don’t want to hear about the economy, your lack of ____(fill in the blank), how mean your boss is, etc. “What can I do to make this better?” Own this situation without any excuses, because it isn’t going away unless we do something about it. Complaining doesn’t make it better either, self-reflection and action does. Life is always unfair, but that simply means we need to be better. Let’s GO! We got this!

With Gratitude,

Beth