All achievement comes with setbacks, because there is rarely such thing as a straight, simple journey. It’s what happens after you face a setback that affects your ability to reach your goals, your life satisfaction, and even your mental health.
Often when a setback occurs in life, there is a tendency to focus on the what was lost. The individual falls into a “what if” or a “if only” trap. This will often predominate one’s thoughts, to the point where they are so focused on what the opportunities they missed that they are unable to see what is in front of them, leading to:
- Unhappiness
- Distraction
- Despair/Loss of Motivation
But each missed opportunity doesn’t have to be debilitating. Indeed, there are always new opportunities out there to create happiness and achieve life satisfaction. It’s simply about making sure that you respond to each setback the right way.
Making the Shift – Finding the New Opportunities
The sooner that you are able to shift your thinking towards the new or next opportunity, the more you can achieve. In counseling, we work together to help you move forward after you’ve hit a setback, no matter if that setback is personal, professional, or mental.
You can do this yourself using several strategies, including:
- Planning for Setbacks – Some of the most frustrating parts of setbacks is not expecting them. But setbacks always occur. Having a plan in advance will allow you to adapt and adjust when the setback occurs.
- Create New/Sub Goals in Advance – Similarly, it helps to already have new opportunities to explore before they become necessary. Dependence on only one outcome means that a lot of stress is placed on each opportunity.
- Have a Next Step Plan – Overcoming the stress of a setback is critical. That’s why you should have an action plan. When you suffer from a setback, how do you recover from the stress? What do you need to move forward? How can you go about changing your mindset to find the next opportunities?
Learning to change your mindset isn’t always easy, but working together, we can make sure that you learn how to adapt to problems, come up with new ideas, and start making progress towards your goals. As a Long Island psychologist, I’m available to talk to you about how to make sure you keep contributing and keep achieving. Call today to get started.
