A few weeks ago, a woman shared a story on LinkedIn that I found very powerful. Jolene Saulis Dione, a director in Canada's Public Service, described some of the challenges she was experiencing during the first week of return to office: a sick child, stress over parking, two parking tickets. While in the waiting room at her doctor's office, Jolene recounted her woes to an older woman who had once been a senior manager in the Public Service. As the older woman was called for her appointment, she turned to Jolene and said, "Never let a bad day bring out the worst in you." Jolene wrote, "I felt that."

I felt it too. After reading Jolene's post, I recalled occasions where I had let a bad day get to me—losing my composure, snapping at someone I loved, saying something I regretted. Most often, I lashed out after a series of bad days or during a period of stress and overwork. While that may have made my lapse in patience understandable, it didn't excuse it.

Had I known of the statement Jolene shared in her LinkedIn post—"Never let a bad day bring out the worst in you."—I might have repeated that to myself in those moments when I was feeling overwhelmed. I'll try to remember it the next time I have an off day.