LEARNING HOW TO HEAL SO YOU CAN STAND UP AGAIN

Doing anything new is risky and scary. Even with calculated risk and good planning, you have no guarantee in the result. Yet without change, you cannot expect things to improve. And at times, despite your good intentions, someone will disagree and find faults in your actions. That’s old news, you may say. But how much do you know about how to heal your emotional wounds?

Rereading Emotional First Aid: Healing, Rejection, Guilt, Failure and Other Everyday Hurts by Dr. Guy reminds me how the challenges we face to be creative at work is more than the lack of ping pong tables. While we know how to handle even a paper cut, most of us do not know how to heal our wounds from rejection or failure.

We brush it off saying ‘it’s no big deal’, but his research shows that the emotional wound deepens, and when we do not know how to heal, we only become more defensive and protective in fear of getting hurt again.
Studies also show that pessimists tend to recall bad memories more negatively and harshly than those who don’t see the world negatively.

So, when we get rejected with our idea, when our leader walks away from their promise, or when our closest allies turn their backs on us – they all add up. And it is up to us to know how to deal, heal and make these moments a part of a learning experience so that we can show up with courage and try something new again.

I’m humbly reminded of this importance each day as a bootstrapping entrepreneur. The highs are high and the lows are low. But if I’m letting these experience define and limit me, not only am I remaining to stay in the fear but also will be less likely to want to try something new. As you celebrate the wins, I hope you find space to heal, make those moments your ‘lessons learned’ and keep growing into your future.