Bounce Back from Defeat in your Business Life

Learning how to cope with failure is a trait all successful people learn. Discover some of the ways goal-oriented individuals bounce back from those inevitable setbacks in business.

When goals are first set and targets made, you can be very motivated and optimistic. Then it’s time to put words into actions. Sometimes you hit the bulls-eye, but sometimes you miss that target by miles. Invariably, many of your failures result in financial and opportunity cost. Sometimes these costs may be so high that you may be aggrieved enough to start thinking of quitting the business forever. A good portion of your life could be wasted. Instead, re-assess the situation and see what can be improved.

  • Do not be over-enthusiastic when setting goals and targets. Now that you have under-achieved, reset them to realistic levels. With each revision revise the chain of actions that would be needed to reach your goal. In short, be realistic.
  • You can muster that all-important energy to reset targets from an under-achieving position only when you have shrugged off negativity. You have to wire your thinking in such a manner that you expect achievement rather than defeat. At the same time, you have to admit failure in acts that had gone wrong. Honest admissions bring in more positive energy than any amount of counseling.
  • Make your business life less serious and rule-bound. Introduce some fun and humor into your professional life. Laugh and joke about acts that had gone wrong. Let your work colleagues work together socially when dealing in complex tasks. This can make a tough task seem less troubling.
  • Make your group a cohesive group that is oriented to a common purpose well understood by all. All should help each other, but each should be good enough to work on their own. Nobody in your group should harbor negative thoughts and all should move positively towards a common purpose.
  • Practice positive inner speech. When you know that victory is around the corner you are less bothered when defeat rears its head. Wire your mind to positive outcomes and throw out the possibilities of any negative ones. Train not only your mind but also help train the minds of others in your working group. This can be the biggest leap in productivity that your working group can ever experience.
  • Most losers have a loser mentality even before they fail. “I am going to suffer and lose” is their constant refrain from the very start. You are dampening your own energies by thinking like this. In addition, your victim mentality can be contagious for others in your group. If this happens, then you are a squadron which is waiting to be shot down. Leave that mentality outside the office.

When all is said and done, there is no substitute for honest hard work. Only hard work succeeds, and those who do not work hard can never taste success. But few who have succeeded have done so on their first attempt. It is your ability to pick yourself and your team up when things go awry that will spell success. Practice positive thinking and foster it in your employees and you will be back on the road to achieving your goals in no time.

This content is inspired by the article ‘10 Ways to Improve the Quality of Your Business Life’ by Sherrie Campbell, first published at entrepreneur.com.

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