Four Ways to Overcome Everyday Disappointments

Are you suffering from a minor disappointment? Congratulate yourself. It means you’re growing. Constant gratification would be like living in a 100 percent sterile environment. That’s totally unrealistic.

Generally, minor disappointments are challenges for self-management and opportunities for personal growth. Here are four tips for overcoming everyday disappointments.

1. Establish new priorities. Stop running. Think. Review your experience. If you feel alone, put it on paper. Talk with a good friend about disappointment you’re feeling. If the disappointment is related to your job, discuss it with your spouse or trusted mentor first. Isolate minor disappointments before you see your next customer.

2. Minimize your exposure to disappointment. One major source of disappointment: unrealistic expectations. We often overestimate what we can do, what money can do, what authority can do, what contracts can do, and what other people will do for us. Disappointment in expectations helps us learn about the practical opportunities in life. Unrealistic self-expectations can lead to unnecessary disappointment.

3. Increase your resilience. You need to develop resilience to lessen your chances of suffering disappointment. How? Don’t mistake customer indifference for anything other than what it is. In selling, some prospects will accept you and some will reject you. Understand that a rejection may be real or imagined; it may also be just indifference or nothing but a reflection of the other person’s world and particular situation.

4. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Monitor your expectations. Know your abilities and limits. Renew your commitments every day. Learn to accept other people’s negative feelings. Accept your vulnerability. Maintain conscious control over what drives you. Build close relationships. Keep reaching higher than you expect to achieve.