Mastering Tough Days: Strategies for Resilience and Growth
Practical strategies to stay grounded, resilient, and motivated on your hardest days.
Bad, tough, and dark days are an inevitable part of life. They can make us feel like everything we've built has collapsed, like we're back to square one, disconnected from ourselves, and lost in a fog of doubt and frustration. These are the days when we feel like running away, escaping from everything, and retreating into isolation.
In this newsletter, I’ll share the best advice I’ve encountered over the years on how to navigate these challenging moments, as well as the strategies that have personally helped me the most.
Understanding Tough Days
We all have days when we don’t feel our best. Days when we wake up without motivation, energy, or even the will to get out of bed. If we do manage to push through, the entire day feels like an uphill battle.
Tough days can stem from many sources—our diet, our repeated actions, our mindset, external stressors, or even seemingly random universal forces. Sometimes, we can pinpoint a clear cause. Other times, there’s no apparent reason, and we simply have to accept that we’re not in control of everything.
But having these days doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with us. Fluctuations in mood are normal. Growth comes not from avoiding tough days, but from learning how to navigate them. How we handle these moments is just as important—if not more so—than how we operate on good days. Overcoming challenges builds character, strengthens resilience, and accelerates personal growth.
The key is to implement strategies that help you move through these days without letting them derail your progress. Here’s how.
Analyzing vs. Letting Go
If you’re an analytical person, your mind might try to dissect every detail of why you’re having a bad day. While reflection can be valuable, it’s a double-edged sword. Overanalyzing can lead to obsessive thinking, which only worsens your emotional state.
If you can identify a clear reason for your malaise, great—use that insight to adjust and move forward. But if you can’t find a logical explanation, let it go. Instead, focus on practices that calm your mind, like mindfulness, meditation, breathwork, or binaural beats.
Feeling the Emotions
Highly emotional people often struggle the most on bad days because emotions drive thoughts and behaviors. If left unchecked, they can spiral out of control.
One powerful approach is to fully experience your emotions rather than resisting them. There’s a saying: what you resist, persists. Instead of fighting your emotions, acknowledge them. Let yourself feel them, process them, and then allow them to pass naturally.
Give yourself space to experience what you’re feeling without judgment. This is an act of self-compassion and an essential step in emotional resilience.
Mindfulness, Meditation & NSDR
Mindfulness and meditation help ground you in the present moment, reducing stress and preventing your mind from spiraling into negativity.
A powerful technique to try is NSDR (Non-Sleep Deep Rest), a term popularized by neuroscientist Andrew Huberman. It’s a guided relaxation practice that enhances recovery and mental clarity. When you feel overwhelmed, try:
A 10-minute NSDR session (available on YouTube or apps like Reveri).
A short mindfulness meditation focusing on your breath.
A body scan meditation to release tension.
These practices help reset your nervous system, bringing calm and clarity to tough days.
Move the Chains
I first encountered the concept of "Moving the Chains" in Ryan Munsey's book F*ck Your Feelings, and it remains one of my favorite mental models.
This idea comes from American football: if a team gains just 3-4 yards per play, they will keep advancing and eventually score touchdowns. Applying this to life, #MTC means identifying the one most important task that must be accomplished that day—no matter what happens. Just one thing.
On your next bad day, ask yourself:
“What’s one thing I can do today that will move my mission forward?”
Once you accomplish that task, give yourself permission to shift into recovery mode. This approach ensures that your progress doesn’t stall, and it prevents a bad day from turning into a downward spiral.
Practice Self-Love
Tough days often trigger self-criticism. We tell ourselves we’re not productive enough, not good enough, or not worthy. This inner dialogue can be damaging.
Instead, use these moments as opportunities to practice self-love:
Speak to yourself with kindness and compassion.
Treat yourself the way you would treat a friend who is struggling.
Engage in self-care activities—take a walk, listen to music, or simply rest without guilt.
Self-love is not about indulgence—it’s about recognizing your worth even when you don’t feel your best.
Practice Gratitude
On bad days, negativity can cloud your mind, making it easy to forget the good things in your life. Practicing gratitude helps shift your focus from what’s wrong to what’s right.
A simple way to do this is:
Write down three things you’re grateful for, no matter how small.
Reflect on past challenges you’ve overcome and how they made you stronger.
Express appreciation to someone who has positively impacted your life.
This practice rewires your brain to see the positive, even when everything feels heavy.
Reframe and Refocus
Klemen Selakovič, my favorite fellow podcaster in Slovenia, wrote in his book:
“The days when I think about myself and my needs are the hardest and most miserable. The days that are full of creativity and helping others are light, joyful, and filled with life energy. For a rational mind, this is pure nonsense.” (AIDEA, p. 97)
Shifting focus from self to service can be incredibly powerful. Instead of dwelling on your struggles, redirect your energy toward helping others, creating something meaningful, or engaging in an activity that brings joy. This shift in perspective can turn a dark day into a day of purpose.
Forget the Bad Day
When Richard Branson was asked how he handles sadness, he replied:
“I can’t remember the bad times. I only remember the good things that happened in my life.”
Make it through the day, then let it go. Before bed, write down at least one thing you accomplished—even if it’s small. Make a simple plan for the next day, then hit the pillow with a clear mind. Your subconscious will do the rest while you sleep.
Final Thoughts
Bad days will come and go, but they don’t define you. The way you handle them does. By practicing gratitude, self-love, and mindfulness, and by focusing on small but meaningful actions, you can prevent a bad day from turning into a bad week—or worse, a downward spiral.
The goal isn’t to avoid tough days, but to develop the tools to navigate them with resilience and grace. Keep moving forward. One step at a time.
Thanks. A good reminder. I had a sleepy day yesterday. Whenever I have a tired day, I can panic, thinking that I am slipping back into a bad state of fatigue. Today, I can feel my stomach and leg muscles aching - but that's because I managed to do a pilates class yesterday and these muscles have been worked. There's nothing for my system to panic about - and I have to remind myself of that.