Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Navigating! For Success in Life: Letdown Lessons: A Way to Land Up!
Navigating! For Success in Life, Career and Business Pursuits: Letdown Lessons: A Way to Land Up!: Unrelenting disappointment leaves you heartsick, but a sudden good break can turn life around. Proverbs 13: 12 People d...
Letdown Lessons: A Way to Land Up!
Unrelenting disappointment leaves you heartsick,
but a sudden good break
can turn life around.
Proverbs 13: 12
People disappoint. Situations don’t always turn out the way we’d like. Folks don’t always do right or treat you right. Family and others take advantage. Whether it’s a friend reneging on a promise, a client cancelling an engagement, a manager not following through on a personnel action or a family member not living up to expectations— these occurrences can sear your soul. Disappointment can shake the foundation of trust and sometimes dealing with it is hard.
It’s also
difficult to explain these types of
emotional jabs that come with the territory of our
trek to kids, but we must try.
My
youngest niece wanted to have a 13th
birthday party in August of 2010 and
posted her invitation on Facebook. Only
a few friends responded ‘yes’
and when they saw that others weren’t coming, they withdrew
their responses to attend.
She
cancelled the party.
Upset, my niece
then went on Facebook the afternoon the party would’ve
happened and saw that some of the invited kids were
online. She was very hurt, posting
comments to that effect and lashed out angrily. If
they were online that meant they weren’t busy and
could have come to the party. The reasons why
some of the kids couldn’t attend were probably varied,
but it didn’t matter to her. This was a huge
disappointment at a special yet challenging time in her life.
Turning 13 is a big deal, marking the teenage
transition. This disappointment added to the
loss of her “Nanny's sunset” a few months earlier—those
emotions still tugging at
her heart’s core—made this
even tougher on her. I tried to encourage her
and she put up a brave front. We also
talked about her comments in reaction to the
disappointment on Facebook. I pointed out that
a forum as large as Facebook was probably not the best place to
vent and suggested she put
her special emotional thoughts in her journal
instead.
How will we settle our spirits after
disappointment?
Thoughts
such as “well, it happens”,
“this too shall pass”,
“I may be down but not out” or “every dog has
his day” may provide some temporary relief. In my
niece’s situation, the venting of her
feelings served a purpose—she
got the emotions out. I also encouraged
her to think about the lessons her “Nanny” had shared with her about growing
up. I wanted to support her during this time of need so I
gave her a birthday card with a monetary gift
enclosed in memory of her
grandmother and I took her on a
day trip to Virginia Beach. She was elated over
my gestures. We had a fun aunt-niece day at the beach. Nothing like
playing in the ocean to wash our sorrows off—
we both needed it. When
we got back from our trip my niece wrote
on Facebook about her “awesome time”
at the beach.
After school
started my niece took another step forward
to shake off the birthday disappointment; she ran for and
won an election for eighth grade class
senator.
You
go, girl!
Excerpted from my motivational
autobiography, Navigating Life’s Roadways: Stories of Insight from My Odyssey
and Inspiration for Your Journey in print and Kindle eBook http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008FQDPYE
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