Meerkat Prompts: Coping with Setbacks
Life rarely hands you everything you want on a platter, and it rarely runs smoothly. I recently had a setback regarding my author ambitions, when I was ‘let go’ by my publisher. It was difficult, because becoming an author was an amazing achievement, and to have it… well, not exactly yanked away, but certainly rendered more challenging, it was a blow.
The first point I wish to make is that it’s ok to feel a bit down after receiving bad news. We’re human beings, not robots. Emotions aren’t going to disappear. Unwelcome information of any kind can hurt, and that’s totally normal. You’re allowed to feel miserable, angry and confused.
What differentiates people is what comes next. Do you allow negative emotions to cloud your judgement and shape what you do next? In my darkest moments, I considered erasing everything I have written and casting it all into the void. I didn’t do that, because that would be a betrayal of myself. I have worked hard to get books into print, and you know what? I stand by the quality of my work. No, I am not Shakespeare or Stephen King, but I got a publisher to take a chance on me.
You only truly fail if you stop trying. You only need one attempt to succeed. It isn’t always easy, but with that in mind, it is also perfectly acceptable to pause, to reset one’s self, and take some ‘me’ time. No one can run at a hundred percent, one hundred percent of the time.
Learn from your mistakes and your failures, but don’t berate yourself over them. I can be my own worst enemy, micro-analysing every misstep I’ve ever made, but what purpose does that serve? Who does it help? There are enough people who want to take you down a peg or two, without doing so yourself. It’s also important to remember that not everything that goes wrong is your fault. Life happens. Other people make choices that affect you, for good or bad. You can’t chastise yourself over other people’s decisions. Dust yourself down, take a moment if you need it, and don’t give up.
‘Kat Comments