Too much of our life is spent doing what we think we should be doing instead of how we actually want to show up and spend our time. The reality is that our thoughts about what it means to live a successful life have been shaped by outside influences: family, friends, and our environment.
Before you put in the hard work to achieve your goal, you should make sure that the goals you create are aligned with your vision of a successful life. Knowing exactly how you want to spend your time is the key to living an optimized life.
With the clarity of what you’re working towards, it’s time to get to work on your goals. While you put in the hard work to achieve those goals, you’ll undoubtedly experience setbacks. Life doesn’t always go as planned, and outside circumstances will set you back.
When you experience a setback, you have a choice to make. You can let that setback keep you stuck, or you can use it as motivation to work even harder. The issue is that feelings and emotions tend to take over during moments of setback and keep success-seekers from pushing forward towards their goals.
The question then becomes, how can you achieve your goal after experiencing a setback? If you’re going to get back up and accomplish your goals, you’ll need the motivation to do so. Motivation is the fuel in your goal accomplishment car.
Here’s how to find the motivation to accomplish your goals after experiencing a setback.
1. Silence Electronics and Get Into a Mediated Vision State
The distraction that comes from access to the Internet and technology sometimes can be overwhelming. During a setback, emotions are running high, and the constant pinging of your smartphone adds to the frustration.
When things aren’t going well, one of the best things you can do is silence the noise. Silence your electronics and take a moment to breathe. Take some time to use the quiet to gather your thoughts and process through what needs to happen next.
Use the quiet time to get back to your vision of what you’re trying to accomplish. Think about what life will be like once you achieve those goals. Create an image in your mind and let the dream quiet the voices of anger. You’re working to accomplish these goals for a reason—your “why” must be front and center.
2. Process Through Your Emotions and Talk About What You Feel With Someone You Trust
Holding all of your frustration and anger inside of you will eventually lead to a moment of explosion. It’s not natural to want to take on challenging circumstances head-on, but it’s one of the keys to success. One of the best things you can do is to process your feelings honestly. All of your emotions and feelings are valid. What you feel should not be dismissed and should not be allowed to fester in your mind.
During a moment of setback, enjoy some quiet time and get into a visual state. Once you’ve done that, it’s time to get those feelings out into the open. Get to the heart of what is bothering you and be honest with yourself about what that is.
It would help if you had an outlet to vent. Whether it’s family or friends or a supportive mastermind group—being able to talk it out will help you recover. Process through those feelings and get support—it’s the key to getting back up after a setback.
3. Spend the First Minutes of Each Morning on Yourself
The best way to understand how to navigate setbacks is through the optimization of yourself. One way to become the best version of yourself is the spend each morning on and for yourself. Self-prioritization allows you to do the work to take care of yourself. Taking care of yourself strengthens your ability to deal with hard times.
Shifting the focus to what helps you takes your attention away from the frustration of a setback. You will accomplish more of your goals when you make yourself a priority. You can’t give what you don’t have, and self-prioritization gives you the energy needed to work on your goals.
Use quiet time in the morning to read books that inspire you, watch videos that educate you, listen to podcasts that help you understand something new, and even use physical movement to burn out any frustration. Use the first part of your day to work on yourself, and you’ll have the mental strength you need to deal with the setbacks. What you’ll notice is that you’ll make significant progress towards your goals through the strategy of self prioritization each day.
4. Focus on Healthy Self-Optimization Habits
Your habits are the key to sustained growth. Building an arsenal of healthy habits is how you will create a strong enough mindset to overcome setbacks. Starting each day working on yourself is how you create healthy habits that make you stronger.
Self-prioritization means you put a significant focus on the habits that strengthen your mind. You’ll be able to withstand the frustrating feelings and emotions that come from setbacks because you will have conditioned your habits to make you stronger.
Create the habits that make you stronger, and you’ll have the fuel you need to overcome setbacks and find the motivation to continue to work on your goals.
Evaluate the significant areas of your life that you’d like to make shifts in. Think about your goals for each of these areas and what it will take to accomplish them. Understand that as you make each of these areas stronger, you’ll have the necessary tools to deal with the effects of any setback.
5. Find Content Sources That Inspire You and Model Examples of Success
One of the best ways to find the motivation to accomplish your goals after a setback is through sources of inspiration. The good news about the modern information age is that we have a lot of access to content. You can watch videos, listen to audio, and read written content that motivates you and educates you on what would help your goals. That availability to content can be the difference between success or failure after a setback.
You’re working on creating healthy habits—one healthy habit is having constant sources of inspiration. There are leaders you follow and learn from—model their success. You need to tap into those sources of inspiration after experiencing a setback.
Use your daily self-optimization time to find new sources of inspiration and model examples of success. The more you build this habit of consuming inspiring and motivating content, the more you’ll be able to tap into that source during setbacks.
Be sure to have content sources that are from those who are living their truth. The goal isn’t any content that looks good, it’s finding the authentic examples of leadership. Don’t be lured by false images of success because those can also contribute to your setbacks. Fill your mind and thoughts with inspirational and motivational content from those that commit to authenticity.
6. Use the Setback as Fuel to Work Even Harder to Accomplish Your Goals
You accomplish your goals with a hunger for wanting more for your life. While some view setbacks as goal-ending events, you can view them as inspiration to work even harder.
Motivation can come in any form that you want to. Dealing with a setback can be incredibly motivating and be the fuel you need to get back up and become stronger. Here’s a thing to understand—you decide what happens next. While you aren’t always in control of life circumstances, you can control your response to those circumstances.
The goal is continual work. You accomplish your goals by working hard over a dedicated period, taking a step-by-step approach to goals. Setbacks mean that there was something that needs adjusting in the journey. View them as lessons, and that will motivate you to keep going.
7. Take This Goal Accomplishment Journey One Step at a Time
We tend to think about the whole picture when we look at accomplishing our goals. We look at the end destination and the one thousand steps it will take to get there. The complete view can be frustrating.
The motivation to accomplish your goals comes from seeing progress. As you take this step-by-step, you will experience a few wins. While we think the end designation is what we want, it’s actually the progress that motivates us the most.
Break down your goals into bite-size chunks. Set a definite timeline and a plan for how you’ll accomplish each step. As you start to achieve the smaller portions of your goals, you’ll be motivated as you see yourself making progress towards the bigger vision.
Final Thoughts
Experiencing a setback doesn’t have to be the end of your goal accomplishment journey. Life offers lessons in many different ways; we have to be willing to listen. Setbacks mean an opportunity to reevaluate what you’re doing and see if there’s a more efficient approach.
You need to use setbacks as motivation and have your sources of inspiration. We’re human beings filled with emotions and feelings that tend to run the show too often. It’s time to take a different approach to setbacks.
You have everything you need to stay continually motivated to accomplish your goals. Goal motivation comes from someone committed to their growth and is consistent in doing the personal growth work. This is your time to accomplish your goals and live a life that brings freedom, goals accomplished, and true happiness.
More Tips on How to Deal With a Setback
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