It’s not always easy and sometimes it is extremely difficult to cope with a disappointment – regardless of the ‘type’. For many of us, the first reaction to disappointment is pouting. Pouting can take many forms but there are both childish and adultish – and both exist, are visible, and are undeniably pouts. There are multiple issues related to pouting and one is length. Exactly how long will you pout about a situation that is over?
Disappointment seems to be a fact of life so it should be relatively logical to devise a host of ways to cope with it. But it also seems that we have to develop a new response each time we have to deal with disappointment. Our attitude toward this problem is the critical component in terms of how effective we deal with the disappointment. So how do you cope? What do you do to ‘move on’ positively?
I think the major issue is do we do anything to move on that has anything to do with the cause of the disappointment? I’m a ‘teachable moment’ type and nothing does a better job of providing teachable moments than how we handle disappointments. If nothing else it will hone our analytical and critical thinking skills. In the midst of all this I believe that it’s also important to look on the positive learnings in the situation. What are the positives that occurred even though the results were disappointing?
Bottom line is that disappointments occur, are painful and last as long as we allow them. We can use the information from the disappointment to create something new or we can wallow in our feelings. The latter position will guarantee lack of our own personal growth. Actually a different type of bottom line is what we learn about ourselves with these situations arise. Learning is always a choice.
…but, what do you think?
