Three Actions for Navigating Setbacks and Building Resilience
Have you recently encountered a challenge or setback? You’re not alone!
Throughout our lives, we all experience struggles and adversity. This includes career setbacks, like getting passed up for a big promotion or underperforming in a meeting, as well as personal challenges like a scary medical diagnosis or a breakup with a partner.
I know I’ve had my own share of both personal and professional struggles, like getting divorced, figuring out the best ways to show up in my family relationships, and reinventing my business in 2020. While going through these challenges, it was hard to keep a positive mindset. But through these experiences, I learned powerful lessons and gained great insights on improving mindfulness and managing my mindset.
Three Actions for Healing and Growing
To find your own ways to heal, grow, and build your resilience during a crisis or setback, here are three actions you can take:
1. Embrace a Growth Mindset
With a growth mindset, everything is possible . . . even if it hasn’t happened quite yet. Growth mindsets focus on learning from the process and coming up with a plan to do things differently the next time. With this mindset, mistakes and failures aren’t the end, but instead important lessons.
2. Attach Meaning to Your Challenges
To better manage your mindset, think about the meaning you attach to a difficult situation. For example, imagine there’s been a small accident in your workplace. Do you see it as a positive opportunity to improve operations? Or are you bogged-down with negative thoughts? By paying attention to the meaning you attach, you can reframe your mindset and find more productive, positive responses.
3. Remember: This Too Shall Pass
When you’re struggling, zoom out for a new perspective. Ask yourself: will I remember this moment ten years for now? How can it make me stronger in the long run? Even when you’re in pain, embrace impermanence. No moment stays forever, which makes it easier to manage your emotions and navigate a turbulent time.
Resources for Learning More
If you want to learn more about improving resilience and strengthening your growth mindset, I’d recommend Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck. When I read this book in 2022, I found it full of great lessons for thinking differently, overcoming setbacks, and setting myself up for greater success!
You can also hear a powerful story of courage and resilience on a recent episode of the Mindfulness Manufacturing podcast, featuring guest Dave Sanderson.
On the podcast, Dave shares more of his inspirational story of survival as a passenger aboard US Airways Flight 1549 when it crashed landed into New York City’s Hudson River in 2009, plus uses lessons and insights from his “Miracle on the Hudson” experience to help leaders navigate challenges and adversity in their own lives. Check out his episode here!