Navigating Personal Setbacks: Finding Balance When Life Throws You Off Course

Subscriber-only episode

Failure hits us all differently. For some, it's a client rejection. For others, a partnership dissolving. But what about when our own bodies become the source of our frustration? 

This raw, vulnerable exploration delves into my personal kryptonite - physical pain. When my hip gives out (yes, like an 80-year-old's might), it doesn't just hurt physically. It completely derails my mental state, throwing me into a spiral that feels worse than business failures or family conflicts. Why? Because I've wired myself to depend on daily movement for mental balance and clarity.

During my recent weekend breakdown, I realized something profound: we need personalized safeguards against our unique triggers. When something knocks us down - whether physical limitations, disappointing sales figures, or critical feedback - having a predetermined healthy response strategy changes everything. Instead of reaching for chocolate caramels (guilty as charged) or spiraling into self-pity, we can redirect that energy toward productive tasks that help us regain our footing.

What throws you off balance? More importantly, what will you do when it happens? Take time today to identify your triggers and document specific, healthy responses that will keep you moving forward. Your future self will thank you when you're able to bounce back faster from those inevitable falls. Write it down, refer to it often, and transform your relationship with adversity.

Chapters

• 0:00 Confronting Personal Failures
• 0:23 Physical Pain as a Trigger
• 1:42 Creating Emotional Safeguards
• 2:28 Developing Healthy Recovery Strategies

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

How do you handle failures? How do you handle those fall in your face, just want to get into a hole and cover yourself up, kind of moments, because I think that really defines us. It defines who we are as business owners. So I'm going to be very honest and very vulnerable with you all.

Speaker 1: 0:23

One of the hardest things for me in life in general is when I physically am hurt. I have a habit of probably at least once a year, throwing my hip out. Yes, I sound like an 80-year-old woman, I get it, but when I throw my hip it normally twists, it ends up grabbing at my lower back and just that side and everything goes bananas and it's painful and I am cranky and sad and depressed over something. It is the worst thing to me. I think it's worse to me than my kids being mean to me, than a business totally failing, getting to a fight with my husband. It is the worst thing for me. I just when I am physically unable to do something, I just when I am physically unable to do something, it takes me out at the knees and what I have realized about myself is that that is largely partly because I have trained myself that in order for me to be balanced and, in my best mindset, ready to work as hard as I possibly can. I have to work out every day, even on the weekends. I will normally try to do something, whether I'm stretching, pilates, yoga. I am doing something normally because it helps me feel more balanced and because I have trained myself of that when I'm hurt and can't do anything. But when I'm hurt and can't do anything, I immediately feel totally off kill and it makes me feel like I'm kind of out of control. So how do you handle those types of things that kind of take you out at your knees? What are some of the things that you are better able to do for yourself, for your family, instead of going all helter skelter and feeling like an emotional wreck Because that was very much me this weekend.

Speaker 1: 2:35

It was really hard for me to focus. It would have made a ton more sense for me to grab my laptop and do some work and feel more like I was actually getting something done, rather than sulking about the fact that it hurt to move. So I'm sharing this because I want us to start to look at what are the things that really throw us off. How can we better handle those things in the future so that we can continue to be productive, happy human beings and I'm doing this not only for you, but a lot of this is for me to think about. Okay, next time that this happens, I need to have like a safeguard in place so that I know you're going to do this. Instead of this, you're going to grab your laptop, you're going to start working or you're going to go through and just be productive in some way, so that I don't feel like such a mush that can't get anything done because I'm just sulking at the fact that I'm physically in pain. I want you to be able to do the same thing.

Speaker 1: 3:54

When you get knocked down, when something triggers you and puts you off balance, how are you going to be able to safeguard yourself, to give yourself that proactive next step that you need to take in order to keep yourself moving, in order to see the good in what it is that you're doing? So, if a trigger for you is not getting a client, what are you going to do to the next thing If you're not getting sales? What is going to pull you out of that? And we need to make it something healthy, not grabbing a bowl full of ice cream, or grabbing my dark chocolate caramel that I did definitely grabbed in the middle of working today. What are you going to do for yourself that is going to be able to help you get back on track in a healthy way? Help you get back on track in a healthy way? I want you to have that written down so that you can refer to it to remind yourself of what it is you can do to help yourself to get out of that funk.