How do you define a setback?

How do you define a setback? Do you have a hierarchy for them or categories? Have you ever heard me talk about luxury problems?

I keep coming back to the same way of thinking! It’s not because I am entrenched or certain of myself, it is because the evidence and experiences of life keep drawing me back to that same position. Are you wondering what that might be? Wait of it… drumroll please… well, it is really quite simple:

• What we think and what we do about that thinking is critically important.
• What, and how, we think determines how we see the world, our lives and others. When that is calm and clear we have a much better chance of making our lives purposeful and fulfilling our potential.
• When we have a mental plan we can enact the physical one. What we do matters. It matters much more than we often realise.

Our view of setbacks

How we think about setbacks is insightful to how we cope with them. When we realise that a setback can be a pause before a step up there can be much peace generated. Sometimes setbacks are dreadfully unfair, life-changing and frustrating. Sometimes they are marginally inconvenient and disruptive to our plans ~ but they are only a short-term thing. When we can assess the difference we will automatically be more powerful in our perceptions of our situations.

Wise thinking

One of the valuable elements of wise thinking is that we can teach ourselves to view our lives and experiences as privileges. You might have heard me say that whenever I am about to grumble, I tell myself that a thousand people would swap with me at this very moment. Most setbacks can be viewed as luxury challenges because there are always people who would love our challenges as their situations are much more difficult.

Tools

One of my favourite and most effective tools from the LifejoyTM philosophy is that we can have a set of phrases to use when things get tough. Here are mine ~ take them if you so wish and make them your own! Create your own and use them to help you through the setbacks.

• It will get sorted.
• I will do my best and see where we are in a week.
• I’ll find some wise help.

The two prayers that I say repeatedly are: ‘Help me to help myself’ and ‘May I have the wisdom to know and the courage to do’.
I really hope this helps you, my friend. I really, really hope that you only have small setbacks that you can easily overcome and become wiser from those experiences. If you’re struggling and need help with coping strategies, then message me and we can put both our brains on it!