Just another day, or was it??

Have you ever started off a day with such positivity but luck wasn't on your side? It gets you wondering whether it will actually get better or worse?

Well, allow me to share with you my such unfortunate day that I recently had.

I set off one morning cycling, towing my child in her trailer as we had just fortunately been offered a place at school and were both very excited. But as we started the journey, I suddenly felt like my pedalling efforts were getting us nowhere. Thinking it was my lack of exercise for two weeks, I started pedalling harder. Suddenly the bike spiralled out of control and as I urgently applied the brakes, I managed to swerve us to a safe spot off the cycling route to get us over the shock and check what the problem was.

Alas, my bike chain was off the cogs and broken!! "Panic! No, don't panic" I heard myself say.

Standing by the side road with no one in sight due to lock-down, it became obvious that I was well and truly on my own with a very sad, worried and disappointed child who was also starting to get very cold. Looking at her face, I immediately felt myself welling up. But told myself, "keep it together"! Did I?

In that moment, a kind stranger happened to pass by and saw us struggling by the roadside. He came over offering to help but took one look at the bike chain and said, "oh no, your chain has literally snapped in half! I really wanted to help you but it looks like you need to go to the mechanics for a chain replacement".

"Great", I thought to myself. Waving the stranger goodbye, and thanking him for his kindness, we made our way to the nearest bike parking shed to secure the bike. I called for a taxi quickly to get my child to school and we made it in under 15mins. "Hurray! Happy child, now get on with getting your bike sorted!" I told myself as I started phoning round for the nearest bike shop.

Unfortunately due to lockdown, only two bike shops were open but with a 3 days wait for an appointment because they were both fully booked and short staffed! I felt all hope lost and the tears I was trying to hold back decided that it was show time! "Stop it!" I scolded myself! "You need to focus on getting this sorted". So I did the first thing that came to my mind. Called up my friend who had a child friendly bike to ask if I could borrow it and to get a bit of encouragement to help me through my bad morning.

She was more than happy for me to borrow her bike and also offered help to fix my bike and some good encouragement to get me back up again. But as bad luck would have it, the tool they were using to fix my bike broke! They were fine about it and I was able to collect my child in their bike carrier that they offered me to borrow, but the shame about their tool breaking whilst they tried to help me got the better of me.

I quickly called up the bike shop and arranged to drop off my bike the next morning.

On arriving the next day, the mechanics were so caring, supportive and just really lovely human beings who saw my urgent need and made time to fix my bike that very same day instead of me waiting for the 3 days appointment. They fixed everything and at a huge discount too! All this happened because a kind mechanic who I had phoned earlier, recommended this bike shop to me. It goes to show how important recommendations are.

I was so thrilled and couldn't believe how my luck had turned for the better. Later that afternoon before collecting my bike, I heard a knock at my door and it was another dear friend of mine with flowers for me to cheer me up.

So you see, no one said that life would be a smooth path and troubles we may face but we know that these will not last forever. Learn to have this attitude; One bad day, is just another day! The next day might be much better and brighter and its okay to reach out for help when struggling.

BE KIND to yourself and to others!! One simple act of kindness can go a long way!

Have you had a bad day recently? How did you manage to get through it? Please feel free to share in comments below. You never know who you might encourage today.

ReConnect Marketing Consultancy

"Marketing help when you need it to reconnect with your audience"

Insta: @recn_marketing

FB: @ReConnectMktg

Twitter: @ReConnectMarket

e-mail: reconnectmarketingconsultancy@gmail.com