Do you want to know the really good thing about a setback?
A setback gives you the opportunity to show the world what you are made of. You can either become a casualty of the setback or you can triumph over the top of it. Regardless of what you may be thinking right now, I’m telling you that your experience comes from the split second decision you make in that moment. So if you pursue any opportunity worth pursuing, setbacks are guaranteed.
Knowing how to recover from a setback isn’t optional if you’re building something real. It’s the skill that separates the people who keep going from the people who quietly tap out. Here are three things I lean on every single time.
1. Remember Your Why
Your why is the reason for everything you do. It might be your family. It could be your dreams. Or it could be the freedom to do what you want with the time you have left. Whatever your why is, it is the most powerful driving force you’ve got. Placing it as your focus can unleash an animal inside of you, if you allow it to happen.
Here’s a secret around this topic that can help you in your business and in your life. No one can stop you, but you. Read that again and again until you believe it with conviction. Stop allowing your circumstances or the opinions of other people to hold you as a prisoner in your own life.
Figure out what you want and go after it until you get it. There are going to be setbacks along the way, so expect them and greet them with open arms. When you feel defeated and lack the strength to get up, think about why you’re doing what you’re doing. That alone will get you back on your feet most of the time.
2. Learn From Your Mistakes
I can still remember being taught that “mistakes are bad” when I was a young elementary school student. What a bunch of crap. Nothing could be further from the truth. Learning cannot happen without making mistakes. So if our educational system knows this, why do we get punished for making too many?
Life teaches us a very different lesson, and it’s one I actually agree with. Mistakes are not bad. In fact, they are part of the learning process. The real tragedy happens when we make mistakes and fail to learn from them. You have to learn from your mistakes, and then try again and again and again.
When you find yourself on your knees from a setback, learn from it, rise up and keep moving forward. Once you do this and get through it one time, you will be able to do it again. After a while, it becomes the default response.
3. Someone Is Always Watching You
Sometimes we find ourselves down in the dumps about our situation. We’re all human, so these situations arise from time to time. Not only are we our own worst critics, but it’s also easier to let ourselves down than it is to let someone else down.
When I first started blogging, I wrote for months on end wondering if anyone out there was reading. Then one day, something changed. A person I didn’t know contacted me and confirmed that the message one of my blogs shared was the exact thing they needed to hear at that particular time in their life. This lit a fire in me and made me realize that someone is always watching what I do, reading what I write and listening to what I say on my podcast.
Even when you get tripped up and fall down, you have to get back up. There is someone out there who needs to see you rise up, even more than you need to see it in yourself. Inspiring other people is an incredibly powerful experience. Letting someone down is an incredibly disappointing one. So when you fall, stand up my friends.
How to Recover From a Setback and Actually Move Forward
Setbacks aren’t a sign that you’re on the wrong path. They’re proof you’re actually on a path that matters. The people who learn how to recover from a setback faster than everyone else are the ones who eventually win.
Remember your why, learn the lesson and get back up because someone is watching. That’s the playbook.
I’ll leave you with this fitting quote from keynote speaker Willie Jolly:
“A setback is a setup for a comeback.”
If you want to go deeper on this idea, the book Comebacks shares behind-the-headlines interviews with leaders on how they drew on internal and external resources to move on, and the lessons that helped them redefine success.
Did you enjoy this? Here are three ways to go deeper:
🎙 Listen to the Intentional AI Daily Podcast — Listen here.
📋 Grab the Intentional Growth Framework — Get it here.
📅 Book a Discovery Call — Grab a time here.