Have you ever slipped and fallen on your face in front of your friends. Ever been dumped by your date? What about that stupid thing you said that made everybody laugh at you? How did you feel? What did you do?
Such setbacks can be both humiliating and frustrating, especially when you allow it to get to you. So what can you do? One option is to hide in the closet for the rest of the year, but this will achieve little. The better option is to rise above the setback. This means you make the best of.
How do you do this? You start with not making it more serious than what it is. So what if you tripped, lots of people do. What is important now is how you deal with it. As a matter of fact, what you do about it is what people will remember. For example, two weeks later they can either describe you as, “That guy who fell and looked so embarrassed afterwards” or “That guy fell but stood up and could still smile about it – what a guy!”
Making the best of a bad situation is what takes the negative out of it. Yes you may feel bad, be hurt and feel embarrassed, but this will only go away if you can begin to feel good about yourself. You achieve this by asking two questions, namely “What can I learn from this” and “How do I prevent this from happening again.” Once you have done this, take back your self-respect, decide to put the matter behind you (get closure) and move on with life. And where something happens that makes you think about the incident, remind yourself of your decision to put it behind you and then stick with this decision.
Other thing you can do to change setbacks into victories:
- Stay calm;
- Keep a positive outlook on life;
- Know that it is okay to cry and get the emotions out of your system;
- Talk to someone you trust about it;
- Get your sense of humour back and begin to laugh again;
- Look for a solution;
- Do not be shy to ask for help or support;
- Do not allow the situation to get you down; and
- Make sure that you come out of it a stronger person.
“It is not how you begin something that matters, but how you end it.”