I’m especially reminded of this when setbacks occur and I have to push my bruised ego aside and forge a new path. Although my business is 8 years old, I’ve had three complete halts of business – during my maternity leave, my husband’s month-long hospital stay and the start of the pandemic.
Only one of them was planned.
On social media we frequently only share the “good stuff”. But I want to use this platform to share a few vulnerable moments of misfortune from the past 2 years. I could have easily wallowed in my sadness and disappointment but I took a step back and decided that it wouldn’t serve me or my clients well.
I shrugged it off when…
- My most profitable retainer client to date had to cancel my contract only two months into a six-month contract because of a loss of revenue due to the pandemic.
- A 10-week virtual course I was scheduled to teach was canceled due to insufficient enrollment only a week in advance and I had already cleared my calendar.
- My favorite client had a change in personnel and decided to go in a different direction.
- An upcoming keynote was postponed with late notice.
- I was looked over numerous times from a local publication’s 40-under-40 awards even though it especially stung on my last year of eligibility.
- I had to find a way to move past each of these setbacks. It wasn’t always graceful, but I found a way. I won’t be knocked down for long.
In our personal and professional lives, we are constantly hit with one adversity after the other, most of which we have no control over. But the four things we have total control over is how we react, how we adapt, how we breathe, and how we take action. – Diamond Dallas Page.
How do you adapt when you face a setback?