As an entrepreneur, part of the journey is to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. If that sounds a bit to woo woo for you, and you don’t know where to start when things don’t go to plan, try these 5 steps.
Why? Because our feelings of disappointment, whether they are ones of hurt, sadness, frustration or anger, can linger and niggle away at your confidence and success as an entrepreneur.
Here are 5 steps that will enable you to move through disappointment and move back to a growth mindset whilst learning from the process.
Although being an entrepreneur for over 15 years, it is tough. There have been many highs, but many lows, including those don’t want to get out of your pyjamas days and dry shampoo becomes your best friend!
However once you have a system and steps to move your forward, you can go from down and out to HELL YES optimistic quickly.
1.Let it Out
As a society, patience is a skill that is becoming more obsolete, we want immediate satisfaction and immediate release from any pain – whether it be physical or emotional. To truly move through an emotion, the hard truth is that we actually have to allow ourselves to experience it.
Often much like a hedgehog, if we even touch the outer spiky surface of an emotion, it will recoil and create a protective shell. In essence creating a sense of “just get over it” and move on.
Allowing yourself the time and space to feel your emotions around disappointment will actually heal the process. So it is time to let the emotions you feel around disappointment out to heal.
2. Get Specific
Ever been in a conversation where someone has gone from one thing not going right, to wanting to quit their business and go back and get a ‘real job’ in the space of 30 seconds? This is where those negative feelings around disappointment can grow in the darkness that is generalization.
For in generalization, there is the ability to sink deeper into the black hole, moving from disappointment to fear around the future. Get specific on exactly what you are disappointed around within the context of your work or your business. Close the door on “ I don’t know” and “everything” but continuing to ask yourself, what specifically about the project, or the goal etc you are disappointed about.
3. Get Perspective
Being an entrepreneur is a roller coaster, and when you are in the depths waiting to climb, the scale of the incline can be lost in translation due to your negative feelings. So we need some perspective of this disappointment in the context of your business and your life. This can be found in comparing it to other points in your entrepreneur journey and then comparing them.
Alternatively in the context of the bigger plans that you have in the next 6 months to a year, how does this disappointment impact these.
4. Be kind to Yourself
When we are at the bottom of that roller coaster, self care and self love can easily go out of the window and be replaced by self-judgement. Whilst we are looking for what you can learn from any given situation, remember to show yourself compassion and gratitude for all that you have, exactly where you are.
To supercharge this process, reconnect every day with up to 5 reasons as to why you are awesome.
5. From victim to explorer
We always have choice for how we decide to work through and feel about any situation. If you find yourself thinking that things and events are happening to you, then the victim persona can start to dominate our thinking so much so, that we don’t have control.
Take the decision to acknowledge what has lead to the disappointment, and choose to move forward with an explorer mentality, one fixed on growth as you work towards your next goals.
It’s important to not avoid disappointment as this can lead to inertia to create your dreams and goals, instead accept that it will happen and create a powerful pattern to enable you to embrace, to learn and to grow as your mindset for success grows stronger.