A friend of mine once wrote a particular exam in the course of pursuing after her profession. She is an accountant, and wanted to charter, so she was required to take the ICAN exam. Unfortunately, she failed the exam. She felt bad and down. But instead of giving up, she reviewed her mistakes and where she got it wrong, she then studied harder, and improved. She registered for the exam again. This time, she went in with the confidence from the fact that she had studied extensively for it. When the result came out, she was amazed at how excellently well she did. You see, one bad day did not stop her journey to become a chartered accountant. In life, no matter how rough the journey might be, it does not mean you cannot arrive at the destination.
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A lot of the successful people you know have faced bad days at some points in their lives. There were even days when things did not go as planned, or mistakes were made, or their efforts simply failed, and their emotions may seem overwhelming. At that point, they may have felt discouraged, disappointed, frustrated, and even questioned their progress, but it did not stop them from moving ahead. They understood the fact that one bad day is not supposed to invalidate the entire journey. That something bad had happened in the past does not mean that you cannot still experience good in the present and in the future.
Life is not just a single event, rather it comprises of a series of moments. Understand that a bad day is just one day, it is not your destiny. You will be surprised how lots of people have allowed just one setback to shape their mindset and their decision. They begin to doubts themselves, think negatively, lose motivation, or even give up entirely, all because of one single setback. They allowed what was supposed to be a temporary challenge to become a permanent limitation for them simply because of how they respond to the things that has happened.
I once read the story of Colonel Harland Sanders who later established the legendary KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) which has become a household name. During his early life, he struggled with almost everything, and failed in almost all of them. He also failed in marriage, in his work, in the military, and it continued until he was already old. Then with the gratuity he was paid and with some money he saved, he started the KFC. This was what brought the major breakthrough in his life. The business grew into what we now know it as. Imagine if he allowed those moments of failure to define his destiny, he would have lived his whole life believing that he was a failure. But he rose up and kept trying, until he achieved greatness.
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It is worthy to note that setbacks are not meant to stop you, rather they are still part of the growth process, because it prepares you for a better comeback. No journey is actually perfect. Even the people you consider as most successful, also had their moments of challenges, disappointments, difficulties, and maybe even failure. But what differentiates them from the rest is not the absence of bad days, but the fact that they were able to rise above the bad days. They did not allow just one moment of difficulty to determine how their story will end.
Your mindset matters a lot in the moment of setback. It is true that when you have a bad day, it will feel very easy to focus on what went wrong. But instead of focusing on what went wrong and on negativities, it will be better to focus on what you can learn from it. You may not notice it at the initial, but the truth remains that everything has a lesson to be learnt from it, even if you experience a setback, there will still be lessons to learn from it. If you focus on learning from the setback instead of on what went wrong, you will discover that the bad day will become valuable instead of being wasted.
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