5 Ways To Stay Motivated When You Experience Setbacks

Setbacks are a natural part of life. If you’ve ever worked hard towards a personal goal and experienced a massive setback, you know how hard it can be to get back on your feet. But chances are, if you’re someone who gives it your all, you know the most important thing is that you keep moving forward.

It’s important to give yourself some time to reflect on what caused the setback, what it means for your goal, and what you can learn to avoid a setback like that again. Setbacks can be crushing, which is why it’s crucial to give yourself some time to heal, and to do so in a productive manner. Setbacks are invaluable learning lessons, and staying motivated through it makes them critical to the growth of a successful career.
We all need help to persevere, and this list breaks down 5 ways to stay motivated when you experience the most devastating setbacks.

1. Take Care Of Yourself

Setbacks can be shocking, depressing, and outright negative for many people. When an individual undergoes a crushing setback, they oftentimes want to hide their pain and frustration from people, for fear of showing weakness.

Setbacks happen to everyone. You are not a failure or a loser for being thrown off your course. It’s important to take care of yourself through a setback, and let others know you are hurting so they are able to aid your healing. Be gentle with yourself and build in ample, restful sleep, a well-balanced diet, and lots of exercise to get your adrenaline and natural endorphins pumping. Invest in your body, and give it what it needs to feel good, be happy, and be energized to get back on track.
It’s always hard getting up after a fall, but developing a positive system for your well-being will make getting back up that much easier.

2. Give Yourself Time To Regroup

Setbacks lose all value if you don’t give yourself ample time to reflect and analyze why your approach didn’t prove successful. Give yourself some time to draw out what events compounded to result in a setback, what the setback means for your timeline, and how you can avoid a setback like that again in the future. Allow these obstacles to serve the priceless educational function they were meant to.
When regrouping, it’s important to do so in a productive way. Look at the symbolism interwoven throughout your setback, and look at the different methods you’re going to develop for a new approach to the same situation. Draw out the different scenarios. 

Compare the pros and cons of each with what facilitated your setback.
Do your homework well the first time so you never have to again.

3. Do 1 Positive Thing Every Day

This may sound corny, but positivity is the cornerstone of every level of success in the world. When experiencing setbacks, it’s easy to default to negativity, disgust, depression, and self-pity. But, if you incorporate doing something positive every day, you’ll be forced to smile and enjoy life in that moment. Positivity is infectious, so by building it into your schedule, you’ll begin to adopt the feeling throughout all of your activities.
It’s natural to feel sad and depressed after a setback. But the sooner you bring a wave of light back into your life, the sooner you’ll be back on your way to success again.
Allow yourself to go for a jog, spend an hour cooking your favorite meal, complete one painting every day, or go volunteer somewhere locally. You’ll be feeling like your old self in no time.

4. Don’t Dwell On The Past

A huge waste of your time after experiencing a setback is to dwell on the past. Too many people look back to the “good times” before they faltered, and end up drowning in a pool of unproductive self-pity. Don’t dwell on what you did wrong to produce a setback.

The setback happened, it happened for a reason, and it happened to teach you a valuable lesson moving forward. Be happy it happened and that you are able to get back on course.
Looking to the past will only make you feel worse. Think about the future, what you’re going to change this time around, and how much better your approach is going to be. The setback provided you with a new educational perspective that will make the present far better than the past.

5. Surround Yourself With People Who Are Good For You

Surround yourself with people who constantly tell you all of the positive things we’ve just described in this article. If you have a negative influence encouraging you to sit and wallow in despair, chances are, you’re going to sit and wallow in despair. But if you associate with motivated, positive individuals who can’t wait to pick up the pieces and build something beautiful, their infectious outlook on life is going to flood you.
At different stages of success, not everyone in your life will serve a beneficial function. It’s important during a time of setbacks to surround yourself with precisely the people who are going to comfort you, lift you up, and give you the tools you need to get back on track better than before.
Treat yourself to friendship and kindness amidst a setback. It’ll be better for your mental and emotional stability.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-bagnall/5-ways-to-stay-motivated-_1_b_10664424.html