What to Do When Nothing Goes Right

He had started to realize that it wasn’t going to happen for him.

He was in his fifties. 

He was suffering from a disease that had led to muscle weakness and fatigue. 

Hepatitis B had already finished his liver by 75 percent. 

His new venture had collapsed. He had to mortgage his home to pay loans. 

After decades of unparalleled success, his fortune had changed and he became bankrupt.

That was Amitabh Bachchan before he began his second innings in Bollywood and bounced back to a stage all of us are aware of. Today, he has an international following and is worth more than ₹ 3,000 Crores ($400 million).

We all get bad days. It is one thing to have a bad experience, but occasionally life takes us through entire stretches of time when nothing goes right.

Like a row of dominoes, one thing after another comes crashing down.

Overcoming difficult situations certainly takes time, but it also requires grit, self-awareness, and recognizing the moment when to take a break.

That’s what this post is about – finding out ways to pause, recover and get going again.

First thing first, tell your heart this happens to everyone. Accept it, even if you don’t see others going through it right now. You don’t know what their past has been or can say anything about what they are going through just by looking at their faces.

When factors leading to a tough situation are out of your control, you may feel completely singled out, like a victim. Don’t fall in that zone. It drains too much energy, making you grumpy and sometimes hopeless.

Trust me when I say – each of us stumbles. Those success stories that you read on social media are only a crux of all the struggles a person has faced in two lines. Everyone falls. Even the world champions. But the grace, the real struggle is getting back up, faster, stronger, and unshakable.

That’s what Amitabh Bachchan did.

But easy for someone like him to bounce back, right? After all, many rich, influential people know him.

The truth is that for someone like him, the failures are more difficult to overcome. Because of the mammoth amount of visibility he gets, his every downfall is also magnified 10 times. Not to count the shame, trolling and fall from grace. If someone like me fails, only my family would know; but if a celebrity fails, the whole world is there to scrutinize, give unsolicited advice and make snide remarks.

Setbacks allow us to put a little perspective in order and reignite passion to succeed. Here are a few strategies to help you stay positive and get back on track, no matter what happens.

Be ready, adapt to change

When things don’t go according to the plan, change the way to plan.

As we set meaningful goals, we tend to push ourselves full throttle. When nothing goes right, it can disrupt our momentum and throw us off course. This feels extremely discouraging, especially when you’ve already worked so hard toward your goal. One of the ways to destress is to use positive affirmations. On the days your hard work isn’t paying off, be ready to adapt to newer ways.

Believe in God’s ways

Things will turn out to be better. Just be patient and learn to go with the flow. 

Most of us take life in a linear way. We put some amount of work and expect the results to follow accordingly. When the plans don’t work out, our rigid expectations lead to a crash. 

If you are a perfectionist, these falls can hit particularly hard.

The truth is that life doesn’t always go as planned. The road of life winds through all kinds of unexpected twists, turns, and bumps. You may work your hardest and still take time to reach your goals.

While all this happens, learn to appreciate life. Very often we realize the gifts of what we have only after they are gone.

Life doesn’t work in the way we desire it to. It does not come with a manual. Every great person’s life is a testimony of it.

No doubt planning is good. But you have to learn to believe the days after struggle will also arrive.

When things go off the rails, trust in your abilities more. 

This is where mental toughness comes into play and you build a path of resilience.

Learn Meditation

Recognize when it’s time to pause and reset your thoughts

Failures can be quite draining. If you are not prepared for them, you can feel defeated, demotivated and backed into a corner. 

What do great people do in those times? They use time constructively and do retrospection. Many have listed the benefits of sitting with self in peace.

Numerous studies show that meditation gives the power to reset the mine and refreshes the brain. 

With every elevated thought that you create, your core values increase.

Mindfulness lets you be in the present and re-evaluate your priorities. Keeps you in present, gives clarity, patience and dedication. It is not a condition to be achieved, but a way of living.

Start your day with strong thoughts. They will set things right for you for the rest of the day. Take out a twenty-minute space where you regenerate and renew so that the way you show up through the fallbacks is first-class. Remember, you can’t predict what will happen, but you can predict your reaction towards it.

I am one crazy-about-meditation kind of person who just started a company. In between struggling to get new clients and keeping up the cheer in the air, I’m happily doing the second task while hassling through the first. Have similar experiences to share?  Give me a shout & I’d love to hear!