At some point in the lifespan of any career, adversity is likely to rear its head. When we think of Steve Jobs, for example, we’re likely to think of the massive success that his company Apple Inc. experienced, but we might not remember that Jobs was actually fired from his own company in the 1980s. (The company later realized its mistake and went on to achieve some of its greatest successes by hiring Jobs back.)
Like Jobs, we too can learn to view a rough patch in business as an opportunity to try out new ideas and prepare the way for greater successes in the future. Here are just a few ways to make sure that you are prepared for any tribulations that come your way, and how to use those tribulations as opportunities for creating a newer and better approach to problem-solving.
- Reframe Your Challenges as Opportunities
Instead of seeing your business adversity as a failure, try viewing it as a temporary setback. By reframing how you think of a problem, you’ll naturally adapt to the issue at hand and overcome new challenges. At the end of the day, positive thinking is the means by which the most successful people achieve their goals.
- Challenge Negative Thoughts
If you find yourself dwelling on negative stimuli with regard to business adversity, try challenging your negative thoughts. Are things really as bad as you’re making them out to be? What are the positives and learning experiences you might derive from the situation? Positive thinking that challenges negative thought patterns can go a long way towards helping us pick ourselves up after a fall, and that is the kind of thinking that matters. It’s normal to think negatively at times, but we don’t have to let our negative thoughts define our future.
- View Criticism as Feedback
It’s easy to feel down when we receive criticism about our performance in a business environment, but the truth is that criticism can be a valuable tool in problem-solving. When we take the emotion out of criticism and simply look at the facts at hand, we might find a few good places to start in correcting our mistakes. And that is the kind of self-reflection that ultimately leads to business success.
Adversity is a natural experience in any healthy career where positive risk taking is a part of the journey to success. While adversity may at first feel like a failure or an endpoint, in truth our attitude will largely determine whether a business challenge is a brick wall or a bump in the road. With the right amount of positive thinking and a can-do approach to business, you can be certain that you’ll be back on your feet in no time!
