This Month:
”Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street.”
Zig Ziglar
Ever had those times where things are just not going your way? Sure you have! Everyone has! Keep in mind that you are not alone in this. What makes a huge difference is how you react to it. Some cope well by brushing off the dust on their shoulders and look ahead to move forward while some just decide it is the end of the world and just stay there, defeated. Which one are you?
Being in the training and development industry, one of the things the I learned early on is things do not always go the way you planned it to be. Some situations I have experienced are preparing a training matrix for each position in the department that indicates which training that each employee has to undergo in said number of months or years. Even what training programs would help them in their job only to find out that once budget time arrives, management decides to cut down costs on which area? You guessed it – training and department. It is hard to accept it at times when you feel you are making a progress on a certain project only to be set aside like an old raggedy toy, right? However it does happen. When it does, it also affects you not only professional but at times, personally.
So how do you deal with it? Sure, it does give you the bruises and makes you feel like a failure but do you want to stay as a failure? You have a choice. When you are driving a car in an unfamiliar place and you came upon a dead-end road. What do you do? Do you just stay there, complain or blame that the turns and streets are confusing and that you have wasted time and gas etc., etc. Or do you stop and assess your situation, maybe look over the map again and see where you can go from there to find a better route to get to your destination. Turn your car around and go back where you came from or try a new route. There are no wrong actions mentioned above. Sure, give yourself some time to vent your frustration, then accept the situation. It happened, now what? Go look at where you are now and look forward to what to do next. Just like that. Simple, right? Sometimes, some of us just get lost and waste way too much time in venting our frustration that we fail to see that it is not always a dead-end street. There are other streets to take that will get you to where you are going. That is, if you are willing to get over feeling sorry for yourself and moving on.
This Month’s Action Plan:
Want to become better than you are now? Ask these questions:
”Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street.”
Zig Ziglar
Ever had those times where things are just not going your way? Sure you have! Everyone has! Keep in mind that you are not alone in this. What makes a huge difference is how you react to it. Some cope well by brushing off the dust on their shoulders and look ahead to move forward while some just decide it is the end of the world and just stay there, defeated. Which one are you?
Being in the training and development industry, one of the things the I learned early on is things do not always go the way you planned it to be. Some situations I have experienced are preparing a training matrix for each position in the department that indicates which training that each employee has to undergo in said number of months or years. Even what training programs would help them in their job only to find out that once budget time arrives, management decides to cut down costs on which area? You guessed it – training and department. It is hard to accept it at times when you feel you are making a progress on a certain project only to be set aside like an old raggedy toy, right? However it does happen. When it does, it also affects you not only professional but at times, personally.
So how do you deal with it? Sure, it does give you the bruises and makes you feel like a failure but do you want to stay as a failure? You have a choice. When you are driving a car in an unfamiliar place and you came upon a dead-end road. What do you do? Do you just stay there, complain or blame that the turns and streets are confusing and that you have wasted time and gas etc., etc. Or do you stop and assess your situation, maybe look over the map again and see where you can go from there to find a better route to get to your destination. Turn your car around and go back where you came from or try a new route. There are no wrong actions mentioned above. Sure, give yourself some time to vent your frustration, then accept the situation. It happened, now what? Go look at where you are now and look forward to what to do next. Just like that. Simple, right? Sometimes, some of us just get lost and waste way too much time in venting our frustration that we fail to see that it is not always a dead-end street. There are other streets to take that will get you to where you are going. That is, if you are willing to get over feeling sorry for yourself and moving on.
This Month’s Action Plan:
Want to become better than you are now? Ask these questions:
- How are my reactions to situations of failure?
- How long am I spending feeling sorry for myself after a failed endeavor?
- What can I learn from from this experience?
- How do I see myself after this experience?
- Be aware of your reactions – good and bad. Knowing how you react to situations will help you know how you are able to cope and deal with them. Do you find yourself festering in that negative reaction and feeling? If so, time to move on.
- So you failed, there is only one thing to do – ACCEPT IT! It happened, acknowledge it then move on. Dust off the failure dust and go back to the drawing board to plan your next move. Stop being (and staying) idle for long because it is not going to help you one bit. Remember that motion creates action.
- When you do face a situation that did not go as planned, just think of the that analogy of driving a car and coming to a dead-end street. Remember, that not all streets are dead-end. Sometimes, we need to come to a dead-end street in order to find our way to where we are going. Just make sure you keep on going.