How to handle disappointment in your life

My definition of success borrows from the homie Winston Churchill.

He has a quote that says: Success is the ability to move from one failure to another without loss of enthusiasm.

But I replace failure with the word disappointment

Success = the ability to move from one disappointment to another without loss of enthusiasm.

That is why I say it is OK to be disappointed in life!

If you can be disappointed and still have a smile on your face and not overthink it, and you can do that consistently and be free of that burden of overthinking and over-assuming… then you are successful.

Don’t let disappointments dull your shine!

Don’t allow disappointments to become a reflection of your success.

- Ghosted again? I’ll never be in the right relationship for me.

- Didn’t close that deal? I’ll never be promoted, my career is a dead end.

- Didn’t speak up when you should have? I have no confidence, I’ll never amount to anything.

- Fell asleep on the couch instead of working out like you promised yourself you would? I’m a lazy fat**s.

Take those thoughts and don’t let them dull your shine.

Know that they don’t define you and instead simple say: lemme circle back.

Say that instead of going down a rabbit hole of overthinking. Let me circle back. I’ll come back to it. Later. Not now. Later. Because I don’t know what it means right now.

In my experience, you either eventually forget about a disappointment because it wasn't a big deal in the first place or you circle back in a week or so and you realize then that it’s still not a big deal.

Lemme circle back.

It enables you to move forward in life without losing enthusiasm because of every pothole you hit. You no longer pull on each thread you see. You don’t over-think, over-doubt or over-assume. You see each disappointment for what it is - disappointing and you then move on.

Simple as that. You don’t have to overthink the disappointments in your life.

Here’s the reality of life: You're going to be disappointed in life.

- You can be strong, talented, kind driven and motivated and still be screwed over.

- You can be kind and selfish and still have someone abandon you.

- You can be a good person and have bad things happen to you.

- You can work incredibly hard and still fail.

- You can trust someone and be betrayed by them. You can know you should do something but still ignore it time and time again.

Simply put, you’re going to be disappointed in life - by yourself, by others, by both things that are in your control and others that are not.

BUT what makes you successful in life is your ability to look those disappointments in the eye and not be unraveled by them, to not overthink them, to not think that they define you, to not think that they are anything more than minor missteps amidst a much larger journey.

If you can learn to be disappointed but promise yourself to say lemme circle back instead of overthinking, over analyzing or over assuming, you’re going to be successful.

Because 99% of the time you’re going to circle back and you’re going to realize that they were just what they are - disappointments.

They are not labels, conclusions or a reflection of who you are or where you’re heading.

Know that you might be confused and disappointed in the moment but you won’t end up confused and disappointed in life.

*****

I released a short 20 minute episode of New Mindset, Who Dis on this topic. You can listen to 197 - Lemme Circle back here.