The Key to Regaining Motivation When You've Been Knocked Back in Your Career or Business

Sometimes it can seem as if everyone else gets the lucky breaks, whereas you continue to stay stuck. You’ve completed untold unsuccessful job applications, you’ve been overlooked for promotion yet again, you're struggling to get clients for your business. Social media being rife with everyone else’s success stories makes you feel even worse.

Because your big break isn’t happening quick enough, you’re fretting about it, worrying about it and it consumes a major part of your thinking time. But worrying and stressing isn’t going to improve things for you and it won’t get you that opportunity that you so badly want.

It will however, consume a lot of your emotional energy and have a negative impact on how you view yourself and your situation.

If you’re discouraged because of knock backs in your career or business, applying the following will help you to regain your motivation and keep the momentum going.

Accept things as they are for this moment in time

You can’t change what has happened, or how things are at this moment, but you can change how you view it. Instead of going over and over why it didn’t work out, analysing every minute detail, you can choose to acknowledge that things worked out the way that they did and there is nothing you can do about what has already happened.

Accepting your situation as it is right here, right now, will help to still your mind from the negative self ruminating thoughts.

Yes, there is hope for you

Just because things didn’t work out as you had hoped, doesn’t mean that it will always be like this. There will be other opportunities. I’m sure you have had many disappointments in the past, which at the time may have felt devastating for you. But the moment passed and you got through. You did it before and you can do it again.

There IS hope and you are able to take action and move forward.

Develop an attitude of gratitude

If you’re feeling discouraged because you are not getting the results you want in your career or business, remind yourself of all your achievements to date. Take a moment to stop and remind yourself of what you are grateful for, and not only that, why they happened and what they mean to you.

Be grateful for what you do have and what you have achieved so far and maybe you won't feel so discouraged after all.

Do something kind for someone else

We get more pleasure out of giving than receiving and research shows that acts of kindness to other people are beneficial to our health and wellbeing. Studies have shown that the effects of kindness can make us feel happier, more optimistic and these effects can last for hours, even days.

When you focus on your problems, your problems are all you will ever see. You will magnify them and they will consume your every thought.

You know that warm fuzzy feeling you get when you see someone's face after giving them a gift or doing something for them that they were not expecting. Take the focus off your issue and do something kind to someone else instead. It can be a small gesture, it can be large but do it without expecting anything in return.

Take focused, consistent action

If you're not seeing the results you want as quickly as you want, it's easy to become discouraged, get distracted and before you know it, the motivation, focus and consistency have gone and you give up pursuing your goals.

Keeping your eyes on your goals, being clear about the right steps to take, adding a dose of realism and taking focused, consistent action will get results.

Don’t sit around waiting for the motivation to come, take action and watch the motivation follow.

Develop a support network

Having a support network is pivotal to your career and business success. Your support network will encourage you, support you, challenge you, hold you accountable and be that shoulder to cry on when things aren't going your way. They will join you in celebrating your successes and will also be there for you when you get those knock backs.

In your support network, include those who can help you to see what you need to do differently and who can guide you in the right direction so that you get a better outcome.

Your support network will be your cheerleaders, cheering you on through the good times and the bad.

Enjoy the ride, not just the destination

We’re often consumed with moving forward and chasing our goals in our careers and businesses, beating ourselves up if we haven’t yet achieved, what we want to achieve and we forget to enjoy the journey along the way.

And when we have those hard times when we do get knocked back, or are not getting the results we want, we stress, we panic, we chase shiny objects (distractions), we procrastinate and other self sabotaging behaviours. Whereas those moments are our opportunity to learn, to discover, to grow and to develop resilience.

As hard as it may seem, even if you've not arrived at your destination and achieved your goals, enjoy where you are at right now and learn from your experience along this journey.

If you’re not achieving the results you want in your career or business as quickly as you would like, it can be easy to become discouraged and lose motivation. If you allow yourself to wallow, you will become stuck and before you know it, give up on pursuing your goals.

Knock backs are a part of life and as tough as they may be, we have a choice as to how we respond. The choice is yours so choose wisely.

How have you responded to knock backs in your career or business? I would love to know so please share below.

If you are struggling to deal with a knock back that has become so over consuming that you feel like there is absolutely no hope, this article is not aimed at you and you may benefit from seeking professional support from someone such as a qualified counsellor who is a member of a professional, regulatory body for your country or region.

ABOUT ME:

I am The Coach for High Achieving Introverted Women, an Executive, Career, Business Coach, Writer, Speaker, UK top 50 Business Adviser and the founder of Abounding Solutions . With over 25 years coaching and leadership experience, I help women (with a particular emphasis on introverted women) to be authentic, bold, confident leaders and excel in their careers and businesses.

I also help organisations develop the talent pipeline of female employees so that more women make it to senior management roles.

I write here on LinkedIn, on my website and on Huffington Post on subjects to help women achieve optimal potential in their careers and businesses.

Are you a high achieving introverted senior woman? If so, join my new LinkedIn community for high achieving introverted senior women, who are members of senior management teams or executive teams. It is a place to discuss issues relating to your career and how to thrive in environments that don't view introversion as a strength. Come and join the conversation here.

All high achieving women who want to be authentic, bold, confident leaders and excel in their careers and businesses are welcome to join my other, more general community of High Achieving Women here