How to Get Your "Groove" Back, After a Setback

After a setback, take action and make progress.

We all experience setbacks, but what matters is what you do after them.  A famous Japanese proverb says:

"Fall down seven times, stand up eight." 7回倒れ、8回立ちます。( 7-Kai taore, 8-kai tachimasu. )

The following strategies have always worked best for me:

1)  "Get back on the same horse."

If it was a minor setback,  and you are willing to pick up where you left off this might bet your best option.   You have already laid the groundwork and the momentum and practice from the previous attempt sets you up to hit the ground running.  If you loathe or dread the idea of starting again,  opt for one of the following strategies instead.

2) Get on a different part of the same horse. 

When I was making product licensing calls four to five hours at a time three to five days a week,  it was a boring, but necessary part of the process as I then understood it.  Switching to doing CAD designs, video production for licensing a different product or something else,  it was a nice break, and a great way to feel like I was making progress toward licensing my products.

Working on a different aspect of the same project gives you a sense of progress, without the "baggage" or feelings of frustration that sometimes come with having to fix or redo something.  Since you are working on a different part of the same larger project.   You get the novelty of doing something new and different with the cognitive / semantic momentum from your previous related work on the other facets of  it.  Contrary to the slow to die and popular myth of multitasking,  we actually switch serially BETWEEN tasks & that costs more time and mental resources than working on the same or similar tasks.  The more dissimilar two tasks are,  the longer it will take and the harder it tends to be to get started.  Working within the same theme tends to have the opposite effect.

3) Get on an entirely different horse. 

In 2016,  I left Japan for a vacation in Hawaii feeling rather good about my future.  I was 48 and after 18 months of negotiation it looked like I was on the cusp of making a low six to low eight figure deal for an optical product I'd designed.  I thought, " If this deal goes through,  I will be able to retire before I'm 50!"  Off I went to Hawaii knowing the potential       licensee was testing a prototype to see if it would work with one of their sports optics products.  Sad to say when I returned they said it wouldn't work unless it was too long or heavy to use with their product.  I thought.  "That sucks,  but there's still the camera optics variant!"  Sadly, they decided "We would rather not go forward since the product in our core competence, sports optics doesn;t work as we'd hoped."  In one sentence I went from an incipient hundred "thousandaire" / "millionaire" retiring before 50, back to an ESL teacher:-?  I really didn't feel like doing product development for a while.  I can't remember exactly what I did,  but it wasn't nothing & it kept me feeling productive and successful until I got back on the product licensing wagon;-)  

Yours may be a different project,  or a completely unrelated task like doing housework, laundry or exercising.   It's irrelevant so long as it creates a sense of progress while giving you a break from the setback. 

This is the best option if doing ANYTHING related to the setback feels like failure, punishment or penance for not succeeding as you had hoped.  It's about leaving the past where it belongs and creating a sense of forward momentum in a completely different direction.  Progress on anything will often give you your groove back and start a virtuous cycle when efforts related to the setback cause you to feel like you're in a rut.

4) Rest or take a break if it was an especially challenging, difficult or disappointing setback. 

In my opinion,  this is the least prefered strategy, but it's a better option than starting again too soon and setting yourself up for frustration and further setbacks that creates a negative spiral of what may feel like "successive failures".  Just like it's a bad idea to drive drunk, too tired or when you're really upset, sometimes a pause to recover is the best way forward.

After a rest,  own, accept and process the setback, then revisit options one through three as soon as they feel appropriate. 

tim #bgreen