Senso1970's Blog   Thoughts, ramblings, and accountability from sunny Madison, AL

Got some bad news today.  I received an email letting me know that one of the possible new income streams I’ve been trying to get started has dried up for now.  It was definitely not news I wanted to hear, but it was the news I got.  It’s a setback.

We all experience setbacks from time to time.  Since I started on the keto journey at the beginning of the year I have weighed in each Monday.  Most have been weight loss measurements, but a few have been weight gain.  Setback.  I’ve tried improving my fitness doing things like jumping rope.  On a few occasions the jumping has aggravated my ankle.  Setback.  Yesterday when I went to run my errands I knew I’d need to use the downtime between errands to record my weekly YouTube video.  I looked for the mini tripod I bought a couple of weeks ago to hold my iPhone while I record and I couldn’t find it anywhere.  Setback.

Here’s the reality of setbacks.  A setback will push you in reverse.  It will move you farther away from the goal posts.  But there’s a big difference between a setback and a road block.  A road block keeps you from moving forward along a path.  A setback just slows you down.

However, a setback can become a road block if you allow it to.  If you begin to focus on the negative setback too much you could lose track of all the positive success you’ve had.  Lose track of the success you’ve had and you can become discouraged.  Become discouraged enough and you may stop trying to move forward.  The setback has become a road block.

How do you avoid this?  Accept the setback.  Understand that a setback doesn’t define you or pigeon-hole you.  It’s one event that has happened, and has passed.  And having passed you’re free to get moving again.  You just have to want to and you just have to try.

So while I’m not happy that I got news of this setback today, I realize that it’s just one of the new sources of income I’ve tried to get going.  I still have other options I am exploring which may pan out.  And they may not.  But that would just be another setback that I can move forward from.  And while the well has dried up for now, I can still come back at it later.  I can dig a little deeper to see if there’s water still to be had.  I look ahead on the path and I still see a bright future.  I keep focused on my bigger goals knowing that even if it takes a little longer to get there because of a setback or two, I will get there.  I know this with great certainty because I don’t allow my setbacks to become road blocks.  And I hope you won’t either.  Have a great day.