It happens to the best of us. We hit a snag, someone rejects us, or we talk ourselves out of an opportunity because we’ve been dissuaded by someone or something. Everyone hits setbacks. It’s how we move past them that differentiates us from others. I promise you that any really successful person that you know has met with more than their fair share of obstacles.
Because these pitfalls are so prevalent, it can be helpful to have an effective strategy for dealing with them when they do arise. Here are 6 proven ways that you can move past a setback:
- Take a step back. Ask yourself what happened and why. Try to do additional research and ask questions if you can. The more information you can gather, the less likely you are to take the setback personally. Sometimes (and often) it has nothing to do with you at all. So, do yourself a favor and don’t try to diagnose it without all of the information. Pause and take a giant step back to learn more.
- Give yourself a break. When something bad happens to me, I hit the reset button so that I can let off some steam, and redirect my thinking in a more positive manner. To this end, I go for a walk, call a friend, or do something else that will take my mind off of it. Do what you can to lift your spirits and get yourself out of that negative funk.
- Take stock of the positive. As my mom used to say, it can’t all be bad. Try to find out what was good about the final outcome. Perhaps there’s a silver lining that you haven’t uncovered yet. Maybe you now have more time or energy to do something else. Look for the plusses related to your situation and try not to focus on the negatives.
- Celebrate yourself. I’m all about celebrating both the wins and the losses. Why? Because we can’t always win so we need to get comfortable with losing. It is going to happen! Setbacks often serve to point us in the right direction so that we can find another way to get the results that we desire. Celebrate yourself and the fact that you had the confidence to try in the first place. Not everyone does.
- Come up with a new plan. So, your plan didn’t work. Big deal. What are you going to try next to achieve your goal? Now’s the time to see how you might tackle the situation from a new angle. Start brainstorming about other ways that you can make it happen.
- Keep going. When I get derailed, I take a respectable pause and then I keep charging forward. You have to be resilient to hit big achievements. The only thing that you can really control is your behavior so adopt a resilient mindset- one that says that you are going to keep moving forward until you get there. Because you know what? You will eventually get there!