No one likes or wants to fail, but in order to succeed, failure is sometimes part of the process. For some people, it looks like winning comes easily. However, everyone is confronted with their own challenges, setbacks and failures.
Instead of feeling bad about yourself when things go awry, try to reframe your thoughts. Think of all the positive things you have learned along your career journey rather than ruminating on what didn’t work.
Carve out some time to evaluate what led to the failure. Identify any mistakes you made and analyze what you can improve upon in the future. Instead of dwelling on your setback, allow the feelings to fuel your energy to hyperfocus on the next, new and exciting opportunity.
How To Mentally Bounce Back
Hunker down and think deeply about what your true purpose is, as it relates to your career. Your mission is to determine what meaningful work is for you. Having a purpose provides you the drive to overcome all the obstacles in your way, as you try to rise within the company or find a new job. Once you determine your “why” for achieving something, you can progress to your “how.”
Start putting together a roadmap toward success. This will include short, medium and long-term goals. If you don’t create a career map, you’ll be aimless and get easily derailed.
Target personal development. Immerse yourself in motivational stories and find inspiration in others’ turnarounds against all odds. Visualize future success vividly by wiring your brain to expect achievement by immersing in possibility. Stay hungry. Let past failures fuel deeper passion for your long-term goals rather than surrendering ambition.
Career Setbacks
Bouncing back from career setbacks, such as missed job offers, layoffs and being beaten out for a promotion, can be challenging, but achievable. For example, if you didn’t get the job offer you were counting on, here’s what to do to bounce back.
Take time to understand what went wrong. Were there areas where your skills or experience didn’t match the role? Could your interview skills be improved? Reflecting honestly helps you learn and grow.
Ask the interviewer for feedback on your performance. This can be invaluable for identifying areas for improvement. Don’t let one rejection define you. Remember, there are many other opportunities out there. Stay positive and focused on your job search.
Most people think that bad things only happen to them. Obviously, that’s not the case. Keep in mind, everyone is going through their own difficulties. You’re not the only one who feels like an imposter or has feelings of self-debt and fear of rejection. Everyone at one point in their career gets laid off, fired, rejected for a coveted role, loses out to an office rival for a lucrative promotion or gets ghosted after a series of interviews.
Your Mindset Matters
Ignore the haters and don’t concern yourself with what everyone else is doing in their careers. The only person you should compare yourself to is yourself. Every day, measure your progress by how you are doing compared to the person you were yesterday.
Everyone feels fear and uncomfortable uncertainty at times. People pile up all of their bad breaks and then it can begin to feel like a boulder you have to push uphill. They’ll say, “Look at the huge mountain of problems! Woe is me.” Instead, keep meticulous track of each and every victory, no matter how small it may seem. Celebrate every gain you made or goals scored at work or in your job search. With all the small wins, your confidence will grow and people will notice it.
Fight back against your monkey brain that keeps telling you negative things in your head. Put a stop to the endless loop of ruminations. Pay attention to how you look, speak, act and interact with people at work. You want to look the part of the person you aspire to be.
Read, listen to podcasts and consume all the information you can about your chosen field. Go to networking events and conferences in your space. Seek out mentors and sponsors to help you succeed. Go out for lunch, dinner or a cup of coffee with different people from the office. Connect on LinkedIn with employees at other companies that do similar work as you. Find people who are more successful than you to learn from and gain ideas and access to opportunities.
Engage In Self-Reflection Regularly
Continually analyze failures objectively. Identify the specific mistakes, knowledge gaps or judgments errors that led to your failure and document these insights. Recognize failures as feedback and opportunities for growth, not signals to give up. Don’t beat yourself up, as setbacks prepare you for later wins—if you learn from them.
Always work on improving your skills and qualifications. Take online courses, attend workshops or volunteer to gain relevant experience.
Becoming Antifragile
Don’t repeat the same approaches expecting different results. Work on developing “antifragility.”
The concept of antifragility, as stated by author and investor Nassim Nicholas Taleb, who is best known for his forecasts of “Black Swan” events, which are occurrences that are difficult to predict that have serious repercussions, is a system that withstands chaos, stressors, shocks, volatility, mistakes and failures.
With antifragility, you grow stronger with failure, build resilience and improve the more you are stress tested.
Source: Forbes
