Good or Bad Day?

Coming home from school the most frequent initial communication with my parents was answering the question, “How was school?” As a child answering this question, the most common response was saying the day was good and moving on. As a parent, hearing a one-word answer had to be frustrating. No tangible, constructive information was gained from that dialogue aside from the fact that their child did not have a bad day. In these conversations, there would need to be follow-up questions in order to gain proper information.

Why was it a good day?

What did you learn?

Who did you hang out with and what did you do?

Questions that prompt more than one-word answers. Questions that give the full story of why a day can be deemed “good.”

In daily conversation, the most common response to “How is it going?” Is saying “good” and moving on. “Good” is expected and this part of the conversation is seen much more as a formality than a real probe into how someone is doing. I know this because in the event you tell a stranger you are having a bad day, they have a shocked look on their face and the conversation tends to now carry an awkward energy.

Having a “good” day is expected with these types of conversations but what makes a day “Good?” If you had to rate each day on a scale, there is no reason that every good day should be rated the same. Some “good” days are exponentially better than others. The question is why? What makes a day “good” to you? Are little things such as watching a pretty sunset or doing a nice deed for someone enough to carry the rest of the hours in the day? Or does it take a much larger event such as a pleasant date or receiving a promotion? Good is subjective but we clearly aim to have more “good” days than bad.

In rehashing the above dialogue to the opposite, if as a child I came home and said I had a “bad” day, immediate conversation would follow to ensure I was okay. A “bad” day is handled differently than a “good” day because they are not expected. “Bad” days are not the expected norm but bad days clearly happen. In answering the formality of “How are you doing?” Saying you are bad creates a different aura that now follows the rest of the interaction. Again, “good” is expected but “bad” can happen.

Just like rating your “good” days, what makes a “bad” day to you? There are absolutely worse “bad” days than others. Does someone making fun of your outfit make the rest of the day “bad” or are you able to move on? Does it take a poor score on a test to sour the rest of the day? Does a breakup prompt not only “bad” days but “bad” weeks? What is the scale of how you perceive a “good” versus a “bad” day?

We want more “good” days in our lives than “bad” days. That is human nature. We must realize what we do on the “good” days, what we are spending our time on, and replicate those experiences. In the battle of good versus bad, by understanding what makes our individual perceptions tick, we can multiply our “good” days at the expense of the “bad” days.

What was today? Good or bad?

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