Learning from Setbacks: Turn Challenges into Stepping Stones

Setbacks and failures are part of the journey toward your BIG Dream. It’s life, and life is constantly in flux. You are always learning, always moving towards something. And when you’re learning, that means there will be mistakes and setbacks. Some people call these things failure.

Instead of viewing failure as the end, why not use these “mistakes” to propel yourself forward? Mistakes are a learning opportunity. Congratulations! You just found out what didn’t work.

Use Mistakes As Fuel

Now you can use that information to switch things up a bit. Try something new or slightly different. Eventually you will find what works for you along the way. Each “misstep” is you getting closer and closer to your truth, your best practices, YOUR AUTHENTIC LIFE!

This life is an experiment and sometimes, just like in science, there are big explosions…mix two ingredients that don’t like each other and see what happens. 😛 hehe Some of these are just a surprise and some can leave scars. It’s what we do with the information that moves us forward.

I call these explosions Shift-Storms™. They seemingly come out of nowhere and totally rock your world. They stir up shi-t and cause a major ruckus. The are NO fun while you’re in it, but when you look back, they can be extremely helpful. They make you move from one thing to another and, if we’re being really honest, they help you upgrade your life and surroundings.

It's really easy to get stuck in the comfortable. To say ”Life is good, I don’t need to change.”  And that can be true for a moment. But life is always evolving and moving towards something. You can let it move you in any old direction, or you can choose the direction you want to go.

Avoid Getting Stuck In The Comfortable

If you let life choose, it will choose the easy way. Just like a river, it follows the path of least resistance. This also means there is no real effort or payback to your system.

This is a fine way to live some of the time. It’s calm and peaceful. It’s a resting place. A place to recuperate and replenish. But it might not be the best place for the long term. Staying in this place can lead to depression, feeling lost, out of control, and like life means nothing because you’re just going through the motions.

When you choose your path and you intentionally set forth to walk it, you begin to take the power of the flow into your own hands. Because, also like a river, there are places in which the carves its way through. These rapids tear down mountains, cut through rocks, and chisels its own path…and in these areas the view is spectacular! The payback to your system is epic.

But this takes work, determination, and time. There can be some pressure along with it. Just like water, when it’s pushed through a precise portal, it can cut through just about anything.

This is what your BIG Dream also does. It sees those narrow opportunities and puts the pressure on to cut through the muck and create those unimaginably beautiful vistas of your life.

The Beauty Beyond The Rapids

All these efforts, mistakes, and setbacks are there to help you learn and break through to these amazing places. And when you can see that this is the process, those mistakes and setbacks don’t seem so daunting anymore. They become exciting and evidence that you are truly moving forward and getting somewhere wonderful. 

Every step you take, even the ones that feel like detours, is part of building something beautiful. Your setbacks are simply proof that you’re in motion toward your BIG Dream. If you want a simple, powerful tool to help you keep moving forward with clarity, grab my free SCAMP Goals Infographic. It will show you how to set goals that are solid, connected to your values, and flexible enough to navigate any twist in the road.