Six Ways to Deal with Disappointment
Like the waves of the sea, your life moves up and down in succession. Most often you forget that both good and bad days do not last long. When you fail to achieve a goal, fail in a competition, lose money in business, unexpectedly lose a job, or when someone cheats and you lose money, you fall into depression and lose all hope in life. Then you start cursing your bad luck or the people who made you miserable.
According to Steven Covey, who postulated the 90/10 principle, most incidents that happen in your life are beyond your control but you can control your response to it and it is in your hands. Therefore, it is very important that you don’t lose hope and respond positively to setbacks in life. There is a popular phrase that "failures are not the end of life but another step in your growth forward".
Here are six ways to deal with disappointment
1. Acknowledge and Analyze What went Wrong
It is natural to get emotional when things go wrong but it is better to sit back and calmly analyze what went wrong. Remove fears and doubts about your ability, may be the path that you chose to achieve the goal wasn’t right, there is a better way of doing it.
2. Take Breathing Exercises, Meditation
When the mind becomes turbulent, you lose all ability to concentrate and think ahead. The mind can be calmed by taking breathing exercises or by meditation or Yoga. Rather than staying shut up in a room, it is better to go out, get some fresh air and find ways to relax. Or else, going to a Church or a temple to pray can help calm your mind.
3. Get Professional Help
When you face a setback, even friends or family members may desert you or start gossiping about you. That is the time you feel lonely and depressed. Getting the help of mentors, clinical psychologists or counselors can help you vent your emotions and get good advice to restore confidence in yourself.
4. Stop Blaming Yourself, Others and the Society
Many times you will feel the urge to blame others for your failure. It could be the banker who refused to lend you money, or a corrupt official who delayed your papers or it could be a friend who unexpectedly cheated you. Blaming others for your failure only increases your anxiety, stress and negative emotions and no solutions will emerge.
5. Write and Visualize Affirmations
Your conscious mind may logically believe that you are incapable of dealing with the crisis, but your subconscious mind can be tuned to accept whatever has happened and start visualizing a better life, a better job, growth in your business. According to Dr Joseph Murphy, author of The Power of the Subconscious Mind, it can be done by writing positive affirmations daily in a notebook
6. Look for Solutions and Stop Worrying
Worrying about what has happened and what is in store for future will not take us far. Even when you are behind prison bars, your attitude matters most for rehabilitation and recovery. While you may be seeing mud when you look outside, a more positive person may be seeing the stars.
When you are disappointed by small things in daily life, think about people who have failed umpteen times and then bounced back successfully. Thomas Alva Edison failed 10,000 times to make a light bulb. He did not consider himself a failure but thought felt he knew 10,000 ways how not to make a bulb. The power to change your life is within you and it should be done now.
