How to Bounce Back from An L

It’s impossible to avoid taking an L. Seriously. We all fail. And the bigger our goals, the harder we fall.

You can take the easy way out and give up. Or you can pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get right back at it.

How? Use these five tips to bounce back.

1. Reflect.

Accept the failure for what it is. Take responsibility for it, even if it wasn’t exactly your fault. This goes a long way.

Analyze the L – what happened? Where did things go wrong? Why?

Learn – how can you prevent this from happening in the future?

Vent, get it out of your system, then move on.

Ask your team for ideas/guidance. What have they done in similar situations? How would they handle it? What can you do to avoid taking another L?

Eyes on the goal.

Sometimes we need to do this literally, writing out our goals and placing them somewhere we see them every day.

Sometimes it’s just a reminder to focus, kinda like remembering good posture.

It’s like doing an imperfect rep at the gym.

Reset your foundation/core (attitude, starting point, etc.) and set up to do it again, better.

If you can’t do it on your own, seek help from others.

Yep … do it again, better.

Don’t get sucked into the “what if?” trap, catastrophizing and thinking about all the things that can go wrong.

Suck it up, get out there, and do it.

After all, as the Great One said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

Taking an L is never easy, but if you can bounce back from it, you can change that L to a win.