Setbacks and Setups

Tell me this hasn’t been you... You want something really bad, like a promotion or launching a new project or an opportunity to meet somebody you’ve always wanted to meet. It’s on the schedule, you prepare really hard for it, and all of a sudden for some reason it falls through. Either the event cancels or you don’t get the promotion or the introduction is delayed. It’s pretty disappointing, especially after having put in so much effort to make it happen, but that’s not the end of the story.

Life will go on and the opportunity will return, will you be prepared to make the most of it when it does?

With that in mind, I want to highlight this perspective shift between setbacks and setups. You can choose to see things as holding you back, making it more difficult for you to get what you want, or you can see it as a new opportunity to differentiate yourself even further and make the absolute most of the opportunity. The same circumstance can be spun in two different ways.

The setback mentality is more of a victim mentality. It’s the “Why me?” response where you feel like things are unfair and conspiring against you. The set up mentality is an ambitious, opportunistic approach that places you in control of your destiny, and it's more of a hero mentality.

Before you can be anyone else’s hero you need to be your own, and it starts with the way you view the circumstances in your life. Do you perceive a roadblock, obstacle, or challenge in your path? Great! That’s setting you up for something great, it’s not setting you back.