If you have high expectations and meaningful goals, along the way you will undoubtedly face times of disappointment. Haven’t you found the bigger the dream, the bigger disappointments you have to overcome? This post explores several key steps of turning disappointment into determination and how to bounce back.
Top 5 Steps of Turning Disappointment into Determination
Setbacks are Inevitable
While you can’t choose your circumstances, you can choose determination over disappointment. Setbacks are inevitable; the key is responding to them in a positive way. Overcoming disappointment is the key to bouncing back, and it develops the mindset needed to keep going, even when you don’t feel like it.
Disappointments happen when the results we want fall short of our expectations. It is the difference between what we want and what is.
When you experience disappointment, it can be beneficial. It can help clarify your goals and strengthen your determination.
Be Determined to Succeed
Here are a few success tips to help turn your disappointment into determination.
You are not alone—disappointment happens to everyone.
Disappointment is something everyone experiences because it is part of life! Learning to turn expectations that fall short, into opportunities to persist, increases our happiness and success. It is tempting to believe that high achievers never face disappointment. If you look a little deeper into their lives, what you ultimately find is they never let their disappointment get in the way of their determination. Their example serves as a reminder that disappointment does not mean that you give up but rather forge ahead with renewed determination.
Giving up is usually more painful than working through disappointment.
Here is a question: Would you feel more disappointed if you didn’t try? Not trying and sitting on the sidelines guarantees you won’t experience the pain of disappointment. However, you will likely experience something even more painful…and that is regret!
When you link giving up to failing and persistence to success, it will fuel your determination. If you decide that there is greater pain in giving up and settling for less than experiencing disappointment as a result of trying to achieve something you want, disappointment becomes less traumatic.
What have you learned?
Look back on past disappointments in your life. I am certain you will find that the experience, albeit difficult, provided important life lessons that benefit you today.
Based upon what you know now, what would you do differently? What is it about your plan that needs reworking or perhaps an entirely new approach? These questions can open your mind to new viewpoints and possibilities. All of your disappointments provide you with life lessons that will help you become even more successful than you are today.
Reframe, and Then Refocus
Reframe means to choose to look at your circumstances in a different way. In other words, it is changing your point of view. By doing this, the thoughts and meaning that you give to a situation will change as well. It can turn a disappointment, which looked like a stumbling block, into a steppingstone that leads you to a whole new level of success.
It’s important to remember that when you are in the midst of disappointment, it is only temporary, and it will pass. The good news is that what you’ve learned about yourself during the experience will help you become more determined and achieve more in the future.
When I work with clients who were disappointed due to a missed opportunity, I had them focus on the big picture. An opportunity was lost but the game wasn’t over and winning was still possible. This same shift in mindset can help you move beyond the short-term disappointment and instead look towards the long-term goal of succeeding. In our personal AND professional lives, we win some and lose others. The key is to resist discouragement from the temporary setback and focus on the big picture of possibilities. It will increase your determination and lead to future progress and achievement.
Make your determination stronger than your disappointment, and you will transform your setbacks into success!
