an hour ago
Life as an entrepreneur is what you make it. The consistent character you’ll hear about in every entrepreneur’s story of success is setbacks.
When a setback strikes, it often strikes in multiples, and it’s up to you what you make of the challenges that come your way. Will you turn your setbacks into opportunities for growth, change or courage? Or will you let the stumbles get you down, or worse, keep you down and convince yourself that business and entrepreneurship just aren’t for you?
Every day offers you the opportunity to ask yourself, “Will I let this make me better? Or will I allow this to make me bitter?” The choice is ultimately up to you.
Even when you choose better, it’s easy to feel discouraged. So if you’re aiming for better, but stuck feeling a little bitter in the moment, here are three tips to help you transform your obstacles into the way forward.
1. When in doubt, pause.
There’s a really interesting human reaction to stress that makes us want to flip out when something goes wrong. It goes back to fight-or-flight stress responses, but it doesn’t always help us.
Let’s take flight itself as an example. When you’re flying an airplane, one of the first lessons you learn is that overreacting on the yoke will cause more problems than good. In the majority of flying scenarios, keeping a loose grip on the yoke, or even letting go at certain times, though counterintuitive, is actually safer. The airplane wants to stabilize and your freaking out could cause you to jam the controls too forcefully and overcorrect, sending you into a…