Rethinking the Setback: How to Turn Obstacles Into Opportunities

Have you caught yourself replaying a meeting in your head? Ruminated on how it could have gone better? Wondered what that person’s expression meant when you said X??

As humans we’re constantly trying to create meaning from events and situations.?

We receive feedback from our managers, we lose a contract, we give a presentation that doesn’t go as planned, we don’t get the promotion (this list could really go on), and then we create meaning from that.

That meaning or story that we create can either hinder our progress or support us to grow.

I remember facilitating a corporate workshop back in 2015 when I was still a fairly new-ish coach. I went into this workshop with so much energy and excitement, but once it was done I felt like it didn’t go that well…

The truth was I was freaked out and vulnerable because I was delivering a workshop I cared about and really wanted to deliver rather than presenting on something tactical (like I was used to back in my real estate days).? The fact that there were people dialling in from Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, Korea as well as those in the room in Hong Kong meant that I felt overwhelmed and couldn’t read the entire room…because of this I assumed everyone hated it.?

I never actually got the feedback that the workshop didn’t go well; it was simply my perception of the event. Because of that story/meaning that I created from this experience I told myself that I wasn’t meant to be working with corporates. Case closed.

It wasn’t until I felt the pull to go back to delivering corporate workshops and trainings that I Realised that the meaning that I made from that one event was secretly following me around and holding me back.

You may have had a similar experience, or perhaps a setback that comes to mind for you is completely different, but it’s not uncommon for us to make meaning out of setbacks and have them hinder our future actions without us realising it. ?

If you have a setback that you think is holding you back here, come and check out this week’s episode of the Aligned Achiever podcast where I share a process to turn your setback into an opportunity.?

You can listen in by heading over to episode 117 of The Aligned Achiever podcast at https://siobhanbarnes.com/117