How Singaporeans can rebound from setbacks at work

In our work life, we are all too busy striving to achieve our KPIs and do good our responsibilities. Naturally, you would expect to taste success for the hard work you paid off. In real life, it may not be just a simple case of ‘you reap what you sow’. In the journey of attaining the desired outcome, setbacks and rejections somehow inevitably attempt to block our path towards success.

Keep motivated

It’s a feeling no one desires to have. Be it a sales person losing that mega deal, the proposal you have worked tirelessly rejected by your boss or even faced with a mass resignation of your subordinates. All seem to have lost and you felt that you have just suffered a “KO” at the fists of a heavyweight boxer.

Naturally your energy and enthusiasm will diminish drastically after being dealt with such blows. Worst still, you may question your own value in the company should such setbacks happened again and again.

The only way to keep yourself going is to keep motivated. Keep reminding yourself the kind of goals you want to achieve when you first took up the job. Visualise the kind of success and satisfaction you will enjoy when you ultimately overcome all the negativities.

Identify causes

Have a self-reflection and determine the causes of the setbacks. Evaluate and examine what have actually gone wrong. Are there any things that you may have missed out or overlooked?  Have you established any contingency plan should things gone the opposite direction?

Talk to a colleague or your superior and hear their views what could have done better the next time. You may also want to find a mentor who have been through similar situations and learn from him the knowledge and experience to recover from such situations.

Seek improvements

When you have identified what causes your setbacks, next is to work on it towards improvement. There is no such thing as a “miracle pill” that will solve all your problems at once. Be patient and most importantly to have the dedication to want to put things right.

Develop an action plan and be as specific as possible on the things that you need to put into action for improvement. Fine tune the plan along the way to accommodate for any unforeseen circumstances that may happen.  

Better social life

Aside from being mentally motivated, it’s equally important to be physically active in order to handle the kind of stress you faced at work. Go to the outdoors more as it has psychological advantages which would help in reducing your stress and improving your self-esteem.

More importantly, talk and meet more to people with positive thoughts and energy which should influence you to take after their behaviour.

At the end of the day, never give up and always believe‘every cloud has a silver lining’ when you keep trying.