How do you respond when things simply aren’t going as well as you liked?
If your start to 2023 is anything like mine, you’ve had some highs and you’ve had some lows. The highs are relatively easy to deal with. Celebrate. Pat yourself on the back. And, perhaps, build on the success.
The low points can be a little trickier, though. Culturally, we don’t respond well to difficult emotions. We want to get over them as quickly as possible. Forget about them. Get back to the good times.
I’ve found learning how to deal with our challenges, our disappointments, can be valuable. If we can face those challenges well.
Recently, I had an experience that gave me the opportunity to face disappointment and difficult emotions.
After several weeks of having to call tech support to get my phone’s data to work, I changed services. It simply wasn’t worth the hassle, and it was costing me actual money to not have my phone’s data working.
To change services, though, I had to change my phone number. I knew that would be a hassle. I didn’t know how much of a hassle it would be.
In our age of ever-increasing security updating some vital work apps on my phone involved more than updating my profile. There were two apps that wouldn’t let me log in: My Mint app, which I use to track my daily account balances, and a freelance app that I use daily as a source of supplementary income.
I was changing my phone service because of my prior provider’s poor systems which resulted in poor customer service.
With the new phone, those same things were being put to the test.
I was already aggravated that I was going through this. With a desire to be at least cordial while working with customer service, I vowed to keep my cool. Getting angry wasn’t going to help the situation.
To keep my cool, I held a vision in mind of how things would work out once the current problems were resolved. I held onto that vision as the first call led to the next and the next. After spending hours on the phone, the situation was escalated to engineering who would reset my account.
It would be another four to eight hours before that would be accomplished. It would also be late into the day.
I went to bed knowing that I had done all I could do to resolve the problem. I held onto my vision of my phone working as I went to sleep.
In the morning, I attempted to log in to the app. Success! Happy ending!
Things don’t always play out like my experience with my phone. Whenever things don’t go as we expect, we can choose which story we will play in the theater of our mind. Either the problem in our story sends us reeling back, or it can be an opportunity to hold onto hope for something better.
Shine brightly!
Stef
Golden Nuggets
Golden Word: rebound from Old French rebondir “leap back, resound; repulse, push back,” from re- “back” (see re-) + bondir “leap, bound” ultimately “to echo back,” from Vulgar Latin *bombitire “to buzz, hum” Example: Since she held onto the vision of a happy ending, she rebounded quickly from the disappointing sales call.
Golden Quote: When life knocks you down, try to land on your back. Because if you can look up, you can get up. Let your reason get you back up. – Les Brown
Golden Speech: LIfe After Failure (Full 3:38 | Clip 14 sec) Evan Hansen shares a compelling personal story to illustrate how failure can lead to positive change.
Golden Statistic: The first ever Book Publishers Day was celebrated on January 16, 2020, with events held in cities across the United States. (Eduvast)
Golden Term: Restatement is an act of revising one or more of a company’s previous financial statements to correct an error. (Investopedia)
Golden Tip: Know what positive outcome you want to accomplish, so you can hold it loosely when you encounter disappointment.
Golden Question: When have you turned disappointment into success?