In an ever changing world, it is hard not to be disappointed sometimes. Whether it is not getting that promotion, your loved ones forgetting important dates, not being able to complete a training session or hitting your desired stats. The key thing is to find your coping mechanism and how to bounce back.
Myself and Sophie have recently opened ourself up in a world of potential disappointments with our new triathlon business and #OneYearToGoPro journey where the potential for failure or disappointment lies around every corner. So we are ever mindful of how we are going to cope with these ups and downs to ensure we are successful in the long term. Our most recent disappointment is our Ironman 70.3 race that we have been gearing all our training towards being cancelled.
Let me share with you how we cope with disappointment and hopefully you can use some of our strategies to translate to your own lives.
Allow yourself to be upset
It is important to allow yourself to be upset in the short term. This is something that you cared about and is having an impact on your life. Take the time to be upset in whichever way you feel comfortable with… whether it is venting to your family and friends or going on a long walk.
Get some perspective
Next… get some perspective… is it the end of the world? Probably not. Will there be more opportunities to rectify this disappointment? More than likely, yes. Are there other things in your life to be thankful about? Yes.
Understand the why
Understanding the ‘why’ is crucial for learning how to avoid this in the future. Why did this happen? If it is something that is out of your control, then this step is easy to understand. For us our race was cancelled due to COVID-19. There is nothing we can do to change this, so we allow ourselves to be upset, gain some perspective and set a new goal.
Is it something within your control? If the answer is yes, then it is important that you find out what it was, take ownership of it and learn from it. If you were trying to achieve a certain goal… did you prepare well enough for it? Was the goal realistic? Did you give yourself enough time? If it was someone else that disappointed you… had you communicated with them? Have you communicated with them now? If you are asking yourself questions like these, it will really help you understand the why.
Set yourself a new goal
Time to move forward. Nothing good was ever done by sitting inside your comfort zones. Set yourself a new target and aim for new heights. To be really successful here, follow the S.M.A.R.T principle. Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time frame.
These are just a few of the strategies that myself and Sophie use week in, week out. Hopefully they will work for you too.