How to Turn Setbacks into Opportunities

Whether the obstacle in your life is career-related or taking place in your personal life – SETBACKS are inevitable and many times, unforeseeable. For the majority of us, our natural first reaction to a difficult time is to get upset and discouraged. This reaction is perfectly normal, but how we then continue to handle the obstacle can make a world of difference to our well-being. A simple shift of our thoughts from the negative to the positive aspects of our problem, have a significant impact on how we deal with any future problems.

My last personal setback happened about four weeks ago after faithfully and vigorously sticking to my new exercise program for about a month and a half; I was feeling great, eating well and had lost a few pounds.

Then BAM!  One day I couldn’t move – I had pulled something in my back! It hurt to sit, walk or lay down.  I was devastated!  It turned out I had muscle damage in my back that was going to require weeks of chiropractor and massage therapy work.

Emotionally, I was crushed.  I had been in such a good “zone” mentally and physically and now my body was telling me that it wasn’t going to co-operate any more.  I began to panic that I was going to fall back into old lazy habits and did well for about three weeks.  Still not totally healed four weeks in and frustration set in. For me, with the feeling of frustration, came the habit of heading out and finding some junk food.

Where Had I Gone Wrong and Why?

Well, the WHERE came obvious to me – I had let my physical injury mentally crippled me.  Oh how the mind is a power thing…

The WHY was what bothered me? WHY in the world would I let this minor injury play with my emotions and lead me down the path of comfort junk food?!  I knew better than that!

FAILURE

I had let the feeling of FAILURE take over my thoughts instead of looking at my setback as an OPPORTUNITY – a shifting of my thoughts to the positive rather than the negative.

OPPORTUNITY would have told me to take the time to master 100% clean eating.

OPPORTUNITY would have told me to work through furthering my knowledge of online blogging.

OPPORTUNITY would have eliminated FAILURE.

Think back to the last setback you experienced.   How did you react mentally?

Did you automatically let yourself fall into that mental FAILURE path, like I did?  How did that path work out for you? Likely as well as it did for me!

Now shift your thinking down the OPPORTUNITY path –could you have made your setback work to your advantage to have become an OPPORTUNITY?

No one enjoys dealing with setbacks, but our lives can be affected by them very easily.   Slowing down and shifting our thinking, even slightly, into analyzing what opportunities can arise out of a setback can make all the difference in our enjoyment of life and how easily we can tackle the next one coming down the line.