Your Setbacks can fuel your Success

Your Setbacks can fuel your Success

Article by Cynthia Chirinda

As the whole world reels and grapples around in a bid to figure out how best to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, many are wondering, “Where are the opportunities in this crisis?” “Will the world ever be the same again?” With lockdowns on massive scales world over, most leaders are strategizing around the clock and looking for innovative ways to contain the viral outbreak. There are many descriptive words that could be employed to describe the current status quo. A key word to describe how this coronavirus crisis feels, is the word interrupted.

Our lives are interrupted. Our businesses are interrupted. Our plans are in a state of limbo, hanging precariously as we hope against all odds for normalcy to return to our lives and daily routines. Against this backdrop which is heavily laced with gloom and doom, the good news is this - interruptions are not endings. Interruptions have the tendency of being the start of something new — and if you a growth mindset, the temporary setback can fuel your success.

Keep Going

Great people are not one-hit wonders made overnight. They are smart on their feet. They have instincts they don’t even recognize. And most important, they just keep going. They learn, and they adapt, and they grow, and they change, and they build, and they rebuild, and they rebuild again, and they don’t stop until it’s done… which, of course, it never is.

If you’re feeling down, or stalled, or lost, or just unsure of what comes next, then this is the best time to introspect and reflect. Look back on your own life, and recognize your strength. Life has hit you before with some unexpected curve balls, the fact that you are still here and reading this article is testimony to the fact that there is greatness inside of you. Your rise didn’t happen by accident. You refused to stop and kept going against all odds.

If you did it once, you can do it again.

A different future is possible

Holocaust victim Viktor Frankl was being marched through Poland when he started to cough uncontrollably. A Nazi guard started to beat him because he was unable to stand up, and Frankl thought, "This is it." He was about to give up—when he had a vision of himself delivering a lecture in Vienna after the war on the psychology of death camps, telling the audience how he had survived. In that moment, Frankl was able to stand up, keep marching, and ultimately survive to tell the tale at lectures worldwide.

In his book Do One Thing Different, Bill O’Hanlon explains how Frankl was able to survive his horrific circumstances: “What did Viktor Frankl do that most people with problems don't do? He vividly imagined a future in which his problems were resolved and then worked backward to the present to determine what he would need to do in order to make that future a reality.”

When going through a rough patch, we tend to dwell on the circumstances that have caused our situation. A better way to go about things is to think about how you can achieve a positive outcome in the future. If you are unhappy with something that is happening in your life, stop replaying that situation over and over in your mind or wishing it had gone differently— instead focus on how you want things to change. Then, work to make that happen.

Cultivate resilience

Life has no shortage of difficulties, but the good news is that no matter how difficult things may get, you can bounce back. That’s the beauty of resilience. No matter how many setbacks you’ve faced in your life, it’s never too late to cultivate resilience. You too can grow to become a “rubber-band person,” someone who bounces back from setbacks every time.

Resilience is the ability of an object to return to form after it’s been bent, stretched or compressed. Think about the stress balls you see on some office desks; no matter how hard you squeeze those things - they always return to their original shape. They have resilience.

The ability to bounce back from a setback often makes the difference between losing and winning. As the saying goes, you only lose if you quit! There are several key factors in resilience. The first is healthy relationships — having a community of people who love and support you is an important key to bouncing back from disappointment. This, above all, has the most impact on a person’s level of resilience; the larger the network of support and care, the more that a person is able to be resilient.

Fail forward

There is no setback so severe that you cannot recover in some way, but it takes a certain mindset to make that recovery possible. I speak often of failing forward — learning from mistakes in order to become better. That same mindset is critical for resilience. You cannot let your setbacks defeat you; you have to look to them for lessons, along with insights into yourself and your circumstances. It’s hard — especially when the setback is something you didn’t cause — but you can find wisdom in even the most difficult circumstances.

What are the lessons learnt?

When you start looking for lessons, you set yourself on a path for personal growth. As you learn about yourself in your struggles, you also learn about the people around you. You begin to reflect on what you want from life, and what it would cost to get you there. The best of us all already have a commitment to personal growth, but it’s easy to lose that drive when life disappoints you. You have to commit again to growing each day — and then focus on getting better one day at a time.

Cynthia Chirinda is an Organisational and Personal Development Consultant, a Life Coach, Author, and Strategist. Her recently published set of books, “You are Not Damaged Goods”,” speaks to matters that position individuals to Transition from Tragedies to Triumph, Reboot, Restart, Blossom and Flourish, to do great exploits beyond their worst experiences. Looking at improving your career, personal effectiveness, communication skills, relationships, focus, faith and happiness? Wholeness Incorporated Coaching offers you strategies you can implement today to review your progress and achieve your goals. E-mail: cynthia@cynthiac.net. LinkedIn: Cynthia Chirinda. Mobile: 263 717 013 206. Website:www.cynthiac.net.