How To Deal With Disappointment.
Everyone has a special dream: starting your own business, working less and playing more, getting in shape, and falling in love.
Valentine’s Day is a special day. It can bring love into our lives. It can also bring sadness, less-than feelings, and disappointment.
We all want to avoid feeling disappointed, whether it’s when the person who says they want to marry you changes their mind, or the promotion you worked for months to get is given to someone else, or the dream car you bought gets a dent on the first day.
When feeling disappointment:
Call a friend.
Express what’s inside you and get it out. It’s uncomfortable to be so vulnerable, but getting it out means it doesn’t stay inside you and come back for processing later, at a worse time, and mess up the next situation.
Talk to your inner critic.
When the inner critic speaks up and says, “See, you got too big for your britches and the universe showed you! You’re so stupid! What were you thinking? Stop being selfish,” reply, “I know you are disappointed and I will do everything possible to correct this. I hear you are scared, and I will handle this situation. You can go play now.” It’s cheesy, but it works.
Find acceptance.
This is hard to do. You want to hide, blame others, and be afraid. Instead, practice acceptance. You don’t have to like the situation, the feelings, and the uncertainty. Acceptance is a choice. Just like working out to build muscles is a choice, learning to accept that disappointing events happen throughout life is a choice too.