A few months ago, I received some bad news. It was about something that I had worked hard to prepare for that didn’t end up the way I hoped that it would. It sucked…bad.
Admittedly, I wanted to cry. But I couldn’t.
I felt like I needed to just take the rest of the day off and mope around. But I didn’t.
I wanted to get angry. And I did.
But only for 10 minutes.
I’ve developed this habit where I only spend 10 minutes on bad news.
Bad news is like quicksand and if you don’t act quick you can get stuck. To avoid the trap of feeling sorry for myself and getting stuck in a nonproductive rut, I analyze the situation and move on.
So what happens during those 10 minutes?
Embrace – Feel everything and recover. Embrace that moment of defeat and cry if you need to. Get angry.
Face – Face reality. Understand that you are bigger than the situation at hand. Think of it as an isolated event. Sometimes people take defeat or negative situations to mean that they are bad people that will never succeed. This is not true.
Reflect – Figure out what went wrong? Was there anything that you could have done differently to change the outcome? Learn from this moment.
Redirect – Take your anger and redirect that into action. Think forward motion. Go out and change the world. You never know…this moment of defeat could have just been a blessing in disguise.
Try it the next time you receive some bad news. Time yourself if you have to. But don’t get stuck.
Things will get better…just keep moving forward.
How do you handle bad news?
– – –
Photo Credit: Pinterest