Have you ever been disappointed? Who hasn’t? If you’re trying to accomplish anything in your life, you’re bound to meet disappointment more often than you’d like. Since disappointment is such a common emotion, learning to overcome disappointment is a pretty valuable skill.
Disappointment doesn’t have to negatively impact your life. In fact, you can use disappointment to create a better and stronger version of yourself.
Try these techniques to use disappointment to your advantage:
1. Review the reason for your disappointment. When you feel disappointed, ask yourself, “Should I feel disappointed?” Perhaps you’re feeling disappointed about something that’s completely outside of your control. If so, make a plan to just move forward, instead.
● The second question to ask yourself is, “How did I get into this predicament? What went wrong?” Identify your mistakes and miscalculations, so you can adjust your approach.
2. Review your expectations. Perhaps you’re disappointed because your expectations are unreasonable. Maybe you simply need more time. Maybe you’re expecting more than you’re capable of at this time. Maybe you’re expecting too much of others.
3. Decide if it’s time to double down or to make a new plan. Now that you’ve decided whether or not the situation is something you can influence, the next step is to determine if you want to continue.
● Do you believe your issue is one of a lack of effort or patience? If this is true, it might be necessary to put in more effort. Or do you need to make a new plan? The new plan might be to pursue a completely different objective or to take a new approach to the same objective.
● Disappointment requires reevaluation. This is an important step before making a decision on your future course of action.
4. Realize that the past doesn’t have to impact the future. One of the keys to overcoming adversity is understanding that your previous negative results have no impact on the future. Overcoming disappointment requires the ability to let go of the past.
● Allowing the past to negatively impact your future will only stifle your results.
5. Realize that disappointment is a normal part of life. Disappointment is common. You’re not facing anything many other people haven’t faced before. Keep a healthy perspective. Life can be as much fun as you allow it to be. A disappointment is no reason to throw in the towel.
6. Avoid being impulsive. If you’re emotional due to a recent disappointment, avoid the urge to take impulsive action. One of your greatest strengths is your ability to think and reason. Impulsive actions rarely contain either of these two traits.
● If you’re feeling emotionally compromised, allow yourself time to cool down, so you can make an intelligent decision.
7. Set new, inspiring goals. One of the best ways to move on from disappointment is to set new goals that fill you with an even greater level of enthusiasm. Be bold and believe in yourself.
8. Commit to becoming more. Declare to yourself that you’re going to use this disappointment to become even stronger and more capable. This is your right. Disappointment doesn’t have to make you weaker. You can choose to be stronger. Use disappointment to your advantage.
How do you currently deal with disappointment? How would you like to deal with disappointment in the future? The choice is yours. Handling disappointment intelligently can take your life to the next level, rather than letting it drag you down. Keep your head up, the long-term in mind, and forge on.