3 Positive Ways to Cope with Adversity
Dec 29, 2024
Adversity happens…to all of us.
It has to me. After hours and hours spent on a proposal, after being told, “It’s yours,” and after projecting it into our cash flow, the response came back, “We’re not going to do it.”
Hero to zero in 1.3 seconds.
I’m sure you’ve had something similar happen to you.
Maybe you had sponsorship and budgeting lined up to create a positive work culture in 2025. One email erases all your plans.
Perhaps you planned a new engagement survey and response initiative to grow people and profits. It dissolves in one meeting announcement.
Focusing on the positive and filtering out the negative is tougher sometimes than at others.
How do you deal with it? And how do you set culture expectations for coping with adversity in your company?
Here are 3 Positive Ways to Cope with Adversity:
Take a Breath
Get up and do something different, preferably physical, once you get the news. The stench grows worse if you just sit there. The vehicle fills with blue funk really fast when you simply get in and drive away.
I like to get up from my desk and walk. My office is at home and our driveway is a quarter of a mile long, up a hill, both ways; in a foot of snow. Okay not really…
You can do the same around a parking lot. Or stop the car and meander through a park.
Take a breath. Give yourself at least a few moments to vent, purge, and exhaust the negative emotions assaulting you.
Encourage your team to do the same. A culture that facilitates “take a breath” develops team members who know how to practice self-governance.
Take a Look Back
Next, take a look back. Ask yourself these 2 questions:
- “When did I receive similar disappointing results and recover well?”
Remember an experience like this one. Look at the reality of, “Hey! I’m still here and trying again.” A look back strengthens your courage and helps you gain heart to persevere.
I actually recalled some larger disappointments than this one. I recovered from that one and determined that I would this one, too.
- “What could I have done differently?”
There’s a lesson to be learned from every experience, positive and negative. You control only yourself.
I now avoid projecting cash flow until I have the contract and a deposit. What lesson can you discern and plug into your positive work culture moving forward?
Encourage your team to take a look back. Substitute “What can we learn?” for “Why you’d do that?”
Take a Boost
Put on a favorite, positively feel good song and dance around. Or, read an inspiring blog. Or, call an ideal client who loves you, just to say “Hey! How’s it going?” Or, write down three positive experiences you’ve had lately that you’re grateful for. Or, go get a coffee and pay for the person behind you.
A boost removes you mentally and emotionally from the address of adversity to an entirely new zip code of positive belief. You can recover. You will bounce forward.
Encourage your team to practice this kind of self-care, especially serving others as a way of diverting the onset of pity parties.
Advesity lasts as long as you choose. A culture that supports positive success endures for a lifetime.
So as you prepare for 2025, make it a habit to respond to adversity and:
- take a breath,
- take a look back, and;
- take a boost
as you create a Work Positive culture that grows people and profits today.
What’s your question about how to create a positive work culture? Ask Dr. Joey here.
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