Your Setback Is A Setup For Your Greater Comeback

5 Ways to Turn Any Setback Into Your Comeback

Everybody loves a good comeback. When something doesn’t go your way in life, it’s important to look at it as an opportunity to prove that you can adapt and overcome.

Giving up on goals can lock yourself into a vicious cycle. You start to tell yourself that failure means it’s time to move on to something different instead of telling you to pick yourself up and brush the dirt off. If you don’t ever try to make a comeback, you’ll never get better at anything. Stop worrying about the “score” and keep learning. Eventually, your comeback will happen and you’ll be thankful for each and every setback along the way.

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1. Give yourself permission.

Setback mentality: “I don’t know if I’ll ever get past this.”

Comeback mentality: “I’m not sure when or how, but I know I’ll get through this.”

One of the most common excuses for not being able to let go of what’s holding you back? The belief that you just can’t do it. But is that true? Of course, it isn’t! We put a man on the moon and a rover on Mars. Do you really think you can’t learn to let go and move forward? Perhaps you do. But it’s time to recognize and replace that limiting belief. It’s time to admit to yourself that you are capable. It’s time to give yourself the permission you need to release this burden.

2. Accept that it could not have happened any other way.

Setback mentality: “I can’t believe this happened to me. Things weren’t supposed to be this way.”

Comeback mentality: “This isn’t how I envisioned things happening, but it’s the way things are—and that’s okay.”

It’s so easy to get caught up in how you think things should have been—or what you expected them to look like. But there is only here and now. And there is only the way things are. The sooner you learn to let go of the “shoulda, coulda, woulda” mentality and embrace the current reality, the sooner you’ll cease to perpetuate pain and suffering in your life.

3. Focus your attention.

Setback mentality: “I need a distraction.”

Comeback mentality: “I need to do something productive that I enjoy.”

One of the worst parts of experiencing a setback of any kind is feeling like you’re a bit all over the place. News flash: That’s perfectly acceptable and normal when you’re overwhelmed with a crazy day or a major life event. But one of the most helpful and restorative techniques you can practice is to focus your awareness and attention on one thing at a time. Constant distractions and indulgences won’t allow you to get the traction you need to move forward. This simple yet impactful tool will help you ensure the rubber meets the road and that you take measured steps in the direction of your choosing. So whether it’s a hobby, a self-care routine, a budding friendship, or a new project at work, find something productive and invest in it. The progress you make in this area will spill over into other aspects of your life—and help you learn to focus your energy as well.

4. Look for lessons and growth opportunities.

Setback mentality: “How come this always happens to me?”

Comeback mentality: “How can I learn from this so it doesn’t happen again?”

I know this may be a hard pill to swallow, but the way you look at what you’ve been through matters far more than what you’ve actually endured. Go ahead—read that again. Your perspective on any given situation is far more important and impactful than what you went through. The most resilient people understand that reinforcing doubts and negative or limiting beliefs is a vicious cycle that’s prohibitive to growth. In other words, reframing a given situation to look for lessons and learning opportunities sets you up for success as opposed to rooting you in the pain of the past.

5. Be grateful.

Setback mentality: “I didn’t deserve to go through that.”

Comeback mentality: “I’m glad I went through that because it taught me an important lesson.”

Gratitude is one of the most powerful tools at your disposal because it can turn any situation into a blessing. When you learn to say “thank you!” in the ups and downs of your life, you’ll begin to recognize that the short-term emotional and physical fluctuations in your existence equally equip you with the experience and know-how you need to tackle the challenges you’ll face further down the line. And that’s a beautiful thing!

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