How to Bounce Back after setbacks and face the future, better and stronger than ever.
Have you ever felt like ‘one of those days’ has rolled into ‘one of those weeks, months or years?
When you are in business one thing is certain: you’re going to fail from time to time.
It’s an inevitable part of living that we make mistakes and occasionally fall flat on our faces.
The ‘in the bag’ deal has fallen through, a client wants to end the working relationship, the ‘big launch’ didn’t go as planned.
Sometimes the challenge we face is from outside of the business: the ending of a marriage; serious illness in the family, burglary or even your house burning down!
Whether in business or life, experiences like these can seriously test your resilience and your ability to keep moving forward.
So how do you keep going when you feel that life has brought you to your knees?
- Focus on what is truly important.
Get really clear on what your priorities are, what is important and really does matter.
Be aware that some things may have been creeping into your life and don’t really matter at all. Now is your chance to de-clutter.
- Don’t fight reality.
You might hear yourself saying, “I can’t believe this is happening; why me? why are they doing this to me? how on earth did this happen?” It is understandable you might ask those questions, but the truth is the answers are not going to lead you anywhere helpful.
It is all too easy to blame others or the situation for things going wrong. Acceptance of what is, although sometimes difficult to do, is what helps to move out of the rut.
It is better to acknowledge: “This is happening, I am going through this”, and the sooner you accept this the faster you will start stepping through it, so don’t fight reality. Learning to accept reality is key.
- Practice Self-care
This is particularly important if you are going through an emotional, financial or psychological upheaval. The is the first thing you MUST do when dealing with an unexpected setback and seems to be counter intuitive. It is at times like this you want to take really good care of yourself. Make sure you get enough sleep, drink enough water, eat healthily. You know this but at critical, difficult times it is very important you take even more care of yourself.
Ghandi was once asked: How often do you mediate and he said, one hour a day, except when I get very busy then it is two hours a day.
- Get back to basics
This isn’t a time to take on new projects or take on new things. Bring your life and your business right back to basics, take care of you, take care of your children, where possible keep the revenue ticking over. Don’t be trying to do new things.
You may find when you encounter a set back it is because you have forgotten what the basics are and it is a case of rediscovering and identifying what is truly important to you and invariably it is a case of going back to basics.
- Take it one day at a time,
Remember this too shall pass and you will get through it, and not only will you get through it you will learn from it and thrive from it and you will get stronger.
At times we can put so much pressure on ourselves to do things which we are not ready to do. The more we resist a situation the more it depletes us of our energy. Learn to surrender to what is essential, otherwise we create unnecessary stress on our system.
Sometimes you need to bring it down to one hour at a time, one minute at a time or one moment at a time. Take this opportunity to re-frame your life to how you want to live it. Set your own parameters that you know you will meet.
- Be willing to accept help & share what you are going through.
I find that especially women entrepreneurs are often ashamed to share their struggles. We fear condemnation or ridicule, so we try to suck it up and not burden anyone with our own issues.
The truth is no one can lend a hand if they don’t know you would welcome their contribution. There is power in vulnerability. Help might be available right under your nose, if you just open up and tell someone what your struggle is.
Conversely, you never know what adversity someone else is going through right now. Every triumph is preceded by a story of struggle.
Don’t struggle alone! ‘Let yourself be supported’.
Accepting and receiving love and support when going through difficult times, even sometimes from people who don’t know you that well, can give you the strength to carry on. There is strength in vulnerability.
For more help and support in how to deal with anxiety, overwhelm and stress, contact Bernadette.