Embrace Your Setbacks For Your Comeback

Dear lovely people,

Imagine that you have made up your mind to rise to the top in your field but then, some annoying little problems keep occurring and making progress towards your cherished goals more difficult or success less likely to happen. Those are setbacks! Trust me, setbacks can really be debilitating if not managed as well as they can be most rewarding if you are able to decode the lessons hidden in them.

The road to enduring success is seldom a straight path whether for business organizations or for individuals. New products get launched with great fanfare — and then disappear from sight. Entrepreneurs make big bets on new investments— only to discover that the playing ground has shifted. Executives use poor judgments— and find their reputations tarnished forever. The truth is there is no success without the occasional failure. Success oriented people are those who do not only take responsibility when they make a bad call, reach a dumb decision or under pressure, choose to do things that they later regret but equally go a step further by learning from the consequences of such setbacks.

Henry Ford said “Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.” Setbacks will be of great value in our marching onward if we understand certain facts about success and how best to manage the setbacks we are bound to meet and overcome on the way to success:

Firstly, Enduring Success Takes Time. Shortcuts are great but, making it in your field generally takes lifelong learning and the insights that can come only from surmounting a series of challenges. Probably the greatest example is Abraham Lincoln. If you want to learn about somebody who didn't quit, look no further. Born into poverty, Lincoln was faced with defeat throughout his life. He lost eight elections, twice failed in business and suffered a nervous breakdown. He could have quit many times - but he didn't and because he didn't quit, he became one of the greatest presidents in the history of the United States.

Secondly, Keep Your Goals in Mind. Learning from your mistakes is important, but don’t let a few setbacks take you off course. When I am working on an important task for example, my goal that day is to finish the work at hand. I simply set aside all other tasks coming to be handled during the time-slots I have scheduled for that. I have therefore, developed an efficient scheduling to deal with that.

Finally, Learn from Your Setbacks: When you schedule time to deal with setbacks, rather than dwell on them, not only are you able to complete your daily goals, but you give your setbacks the time and energy required to deal with them. Enough time passes that you do not react emotionally. You can freely take the time you need to learn from your mistakes, analyze what happened, and work out ways to make them less likely to happen in the future.

At the bottom-line, whether your setbacks derail you from the path or rather gets you focused is a question of choice. “If you so choose, even the unexpected setbacks can bring new and positive possibilities. If you so choose, you can find value and fulfillment in every circumstance” says Ralph Marston.