Things do not always go our way. Even the most optimistic and successful among us has to face disappointments in our home businesses occasionally. For others of us, the disappointments may seem to come more steadily. Instead of letting ourselves get crushed and discouraged, however, there are productive ways we can make the most of those disappointing times.
There are a lot of things we can do with disappointment—we can use it to remind us that we really do care about what is going on in our businesses; we can also take the circumstances that led up to the disappointment and look back over them to see if there is anything we could have done to influence a different outcome. Of course, there are definitely those times when we have done our very best and the chips just fell where they did, but there are other times when we could make adjustments and things might go differently.
We can also use our disappointment to learn how to be more resilient. Resiliency is such a fantastic coping mechanism and it is definitely an asset for the entrepreneur. Learning how to bounce back after setbacks and disappointments can mean the difference between building a successful business and giving in or giving up. It might help you to know that we ALL face disappointments—many of the most successful people have had multiple failures before figuring out how to make their businesses or personal efforts pay off.
Disappointment does not have to be the enemy, it can be our friend. By facing our disappointments in business and using them to fix mistakes and make future choices, we can make productive use of what could be a very unpleasant situation. The disappointments are inevitable, but we get to choose how we react to them!
Also: What Clouds Your Judgment?
What Skills do You Need to Succeed–and Where Can You Get Them?