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# On getting back up when the going gets tough
- URL: https://www.antoinebuteau.com/on-getting-back-up-when-the-going-gets-tough/
- Published: 2021-08-10T23:59:29.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-19T00:18:59.000Z
- Description: A bad day becomes more manageable when its pain is framed as temporary. For leaders, that reassurance must also reach the next obligation: expect the coming meeting to go better, while remembering that safety and rest still await.
- Author: Antoine Buteau
- Tags: Personal Development

One of the heuristics I’ve been using when I have a bad day comes from [Chris Sacca](https://twitter.com/sacca?ref=antoinebuteau.com) in [Tools of Titans](https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01HSMRWNU/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?%5Fencoding=UTF8&btkr=1&ref=antoinebuteau.com): *"TONIGHT, I WILL BE IN MY BED. In 2009, Chris did a charity bicycle ride with the Trek Travel team from Santa Barbara, California, to Charleston, North Carolina: I had a phrase I kept repeating in my head over and over again, which was, ‘Tonight, I will be in my bed. Tonight, I will be in my bed. Tonight, I will be in my bed.’ . . . It was something I repeated to remind me that the pain of what I was going through was temporary and that, no matter what, at the end of that day, I would be in my bed that night.”*

It reminds me that tomorrow will be a better day and that I’m safe, even though I’m having a bad day.

As I progressed in my career and was assigned more responsibilities, this heuristic had one shortcoming: when the day gets pretty bad, I still need to be positive because I’m in a leadership position.

One day, an employee decided to resign and a customer did not renew his contract. I could not get the negative feelings affect the way I was handling a client session to moderate and a pitch to a prospective client.

At that point, I decided to reframe Chris sentence: *“The next meeting is going to be better and tonight, I will be in my bed*.*”*