7 Inspirational Quotes Guaranteed to Lift You Up When You’re Having a Bad Day

We all have a bad day sometimes.  It’s part of life.  The important part is how we react to it.  Will we choose to learn from the bad day or wallow in it?  These 7 inspiring quotes will help you to make the right choice! 

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Do you ever have one of those days that’s just kind of “blech”?  You spilled coffee on your blouse, got stuck in traffic, and was yelled at by the boss AGAIN.  Now you’re feeling unmotivated and down in the dumps.  You just want to go home, eat pizza, and watch Netflix in bed.

If you’re having a day like that (or many days like that), you’re not alone.  We’ve all had bad days —it’s part of life.  It’s not so much the bad events of the day themselves that are causing the problem.  It’s the negative feelings that accompany them.  The feelings of not being “good enough”.  The lack of motivation.  The desire to just give up.  If we dwell on these emotions, we’re liable to stress ourselves out, which isn’t good for our health and well-being!

This is where I often find quotes to be a helpful reminder that a bad day is not a sign of failure.  It’s just a bad day, plain and simple.  These quotes keep me going when I feel like throwing in the towel and get me through to the finish line.  I hope that some of these quotes will inspire you on your next “blech” day and help you to keep pushing forward!  Pick yourself back up and keep working toward that healthy, happily ever after!  You can do it! 🙂

“A ship in harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.” – John A. Shedd

This is one of my all-time favorite inspirational quotes for all sorts of occasions.  In fact, I love this quote so much that it occupies the highly coveted spot of my laptop background (I’ve had this photo as my laptop background for years).

This quote is usually all I need to remember when things are tough.  It’s a reminder that playing it safe is easy, but it won’t get us anywhere.  It’s not what we were built to do.  Like ships, humans are made to explore, discover, and make mistakes.  If we all played it safe and stayed in bed, we probably wouldn’t have very many bad days.  But, we wouldn’t have many good ones either.  If you got out of bed today and everything started going wrong, at least you got out of bed!  Don’t play it safe at the expense of not living your fullest life.  To me, a bad day is still better than a boring day, where I didn’t try my best.  Don’t let the difficult moments in life stop you from exploring the ocean.

“You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, smarter than you think, and loved more than you know.” – A.A. Milne

Okay, so I’m a sucker for a good Winnie the Pooh quote.  Who isn’t?  That adorably pudgy little bear can be pretty inspirational, when he’s not distracted by his honey pot! (Although to be completely accurate, this particular quote was spoken by Christopher Robin in the movie Pooh’s Grand Adventure: The Search For Christopher Robin.  Yup– I did my research for you guys!  To learn more about the quote’s origin, check out this page here.)

I absolutely adore this quote!  When things don’t go our way, there’s a tendency to believe that it’s because there’s something lacking in us.  If I was just smarter, this wouldn’t have happened.  Or, if I was braver, I wouldn’t be in this position.  These are the little lies we tell ourselves that mess with our self-esteem.  You ARE brave and strong and smart!  And yes, you are loved, even if it might not feel that way right now.  Listen to Winnie the Pooh—he knows what he’s talking about.

The Winnie the Pooh books are all about growing up and facing your fears.  Believing in yourself, even on your worst days, is part of the growing process. Embrace it!

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” – William Shakespeare

There are very few things that are objectively “bad” or “good”.  Most of the time, it really depends on the circumstances and our perspective.  There’s a story in the book Don’t Worry, Be Grumpy: Inspiring Stories for Making the Most of Each Moment by: Ajahn Brahm, where a king gets upset because his finger needs to be amputated.  Like most of us would, he saw this as a “bad” thing.  But, then later on in the story, the fact that he was missing a finger actually saved his life.  The title of the story is “Good? Bad? Who knows?”

I interpret this quote from Hamlet by: William Shakespeare in the same way.  In the play, Hamlet says this phrase in reference to feeling like Denmark is a jail.  While Denmark felt like a jail to Hamlet, to most people, it’s a delightful country known for its delicious sausages.  Same place, different line of thinking.

We go about our lives and, each day, a series of events happen to us.  Whether these events are good or bad really depends on our thinking.  Today was a bad day because we labeled it as a “bad” day.  Without, the “bad” label that we put on it, it’s really just another day.

This isn’t to make light of the bad things that happen to us, but to show us that most of the time, they really aren’t as bad as we think.  When you look at the events of your day without judgment or labeling them as “good” or “bad” then you can relax and just let things be.

“If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.” – Pema Chodron

If you’ve read some of the meditation posts on this blog, then you might know that I’m a huge fan of Pema Chodron.  Her book Living Beautifully: with Uncertainty and Change taught me how to cope with change and live fearlessly.  I also love The Pocket Pema Chodron, which has bite sized nuggets of her incredible wisdom.

This quote is the perfect way to beat the bad day blues.  It basically teaches us that the most difficult people in our lives are the ones who help us grow the most.  The neighbor who yelled at you?  She’s teaching you to stand up for yourself.  The incompetent assistant who messed everything up?  He’s teaching you patience and self-control.

This quote isn’t just limited to the people who drive us crazy either.  You can replace the word “people” with pretty much anything.  The situations that drive us crazy.  The problems that drive us crazy.  A good day might feel nice, but it doesn’t really teach us anything.  It’s when things don’t go our way that we learn the most.

Don’t let a bad day go to waste by sulking about it.  Instead, use it as an opportunity to grow.  If you have to deal with a bad day anyway, you might as well get the most out of it!

“Even your worst days are only 24 hours.” – Unknown

This quote is all about perspective.  It’s just one day out of so many days that you’re blessed to live.  Don’t let this one day bring you down, when it’ll be over before you know it.  Bad days might feel like they drag on forever, but, in reality, it’s just 24 hours.  Just like any other day.  Take a breath, learn from it, and move on.

“Some days are like that. Even in Australia.” – Judith Viorst

This one requires some context.  One of my favorite books growing up was Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Do you all remember that book?  The title is a mouthful, but the message is a good one.

A little boy named Alexander has a day where everything seems to go wrong.  Throughout the book, he laments about it and says that he wants to move to Australia (fun fact: in the versions of the book sold in Australia and New Zealand, he wants to move to Timbuktu instead).  At the end of the book, his mother tells him that some days are just bad days, even in Australia.  Alexander decides that tomorrow couldn’t be worse and goes to bed with a fresh perspective.

The message here is one that both kids and adults can learn from.  When we have a bad day, our instinct is to want to escape (i.e. move to Australia or Timbuktu), but the reality is that bad days are unescapable.  They’re just part of life and the more we accept them, the happier we’ll be.  Just like Alexander, we move on and hope for a better day tomorrow.

“Life is 10 % what happens to me and 90 % how I react to it.” – Charles Swindoll

Here’s the truth: you can only control so much of what happens to you.  You can go out there, try your very best, and still come up short.  Life isn’t about trying to control what happens to you—it’s about how you react to what happens.  In fact, your reaction is just about the only thing you can control.  You can’t stop bad things from happening, but you can choose what you do next.

So, today wasn’t your best day.  Are you going to let it define you or strengthen you?  Only you can make that choice!

So, how do you feel now?  While these quotes won’t change the events of your bad day, they will change your perspective and reaction.  A positive perspective and a wise reaction are usually all you need to turn a bad day around.  Here’s to the bad days that teach us to be strong and help us appreciate the good days! 🙂

What are some of your favorite quotes?  How do you deal with tough days? Comment below and let us know!

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