Having A Bad Day - Here's Your Excuse

Are you finding today especially difficult? According to an article in the Orange County Register there's a reason for it:

Having a bad day? Well, no wonder. According to one scientist, today is the gloomiest day of 2006.

Cliff Arnall, a health psychologist at the University of Cardiff in Wales, has devised a formula that combines personal and seasonal factors to calculate the year's emotional low point.

In January, Arnall said, people are simply working and don't have many events, parties or holidays to look forward to.

People are struggling to cope with bleak weather and the debts they amassed over the holidays.

On top of that, many people are starting to feel like failures because they've broken their resolutions shortly after making them.

On paper, the formula looks like this:

1/8W + (D-d) 3/8 x TQ

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M x NA

The variables are (W)eather, (D)ebt, (d) or monthly salary, (T)ime since Christmas, time since failure to (Q)uit a bad habit, low (M)otivational levels and (NA), the need to take action.

"All these elements converge to make for a very unhappy day on the 23rd of January," Arnall said.

I have a much easier formula:

If (Today) = Work Day, then (Today) sucks.

I find that formula to be much more accurate.