3 Ways to deal with disappointment in your life
As a 15-year-old mother, I had to deal with disappointment a few times. If you’ve been following my story, you’ll remember that I made a choice to let a boy I didn’t know touch me. He took things further than I wanted and as a result I got pregnant. Now, I wondered about the identity of the father of my child. I hoped it would be my ex-boyfriend whom I had sex with out of guilt after the incident with the other boy. However, my biggest hope went unrealized when the blood test I took showed he wasn’t the father.
Next, I had to deal with the disappointment of knowing I would be raising my son alone. I had really hoped I would have my ex-boyfriend to lean on so I wouldn’t be a single mother. Yet that wasn’t to be. Those moments of disappointment taught me a few lessons about how to deal with disappointment in your life. You may not be a young parent like me, but the lessons still remain.
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Use your disappointment to move forward
Yes, I was disappointed about my baby’s father and embracing life as a future single parent. However, instead of dwelling on the situation, I channeled my disappointment into action. I got focused on my education, pushed to graduate from high school with grades which got me a scholarship, and allowed me to take care of my son. Standing where I am today, the devastation is gone and there are many happy moments.
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Nothing in life is perfect
Even the best-laid plans won’t always work out. You need to prepare for the inevitable disappointments whether it’s a job you won’t get or people you thought would support you and don’t. You deal with disappointment by moving past the specifics and understanding things happen exactly as they’re supposed to.
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Check yourself
Sometimes you deal with disappointment because you are not ready for the next step or stage in your life. The way around this is to check yourself. Are you doing your part? Are you ready to handle what comes next? If you don’t like the answers to those questions, accept that. Then, do something about changing your circumstances by refocusing your energy, learning new skills, getting help or changing your attitude.
How do you deal with disappointment in your life?
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I’m Summer Owens, and my passion is helping youth and young adults realize success no matter what obstacles they face. As an international resilience and leadership keynote speaker, author, S.O. What! Success Coach, and creator of the S.O. What! Literacy, Life Skills, and Character Education curriculum, I empower people to say, “So what!” to even their greatest challenges. provide a framework to help people see past their challenges and focus on solutions using the S.O. What! Success System (Overcome Obstacles + Eliminate Excuses + Calculate Choices = S.O. What! Success). Through keynotes, workshops, books, online courses, and workbooks, I use life’s challenges and my own story of resilience as a rape survivor and teen mom success story to help others confidently pursue their dreams.
Looking for an inspiring college motivational speaker? A high school literacy curriculum? A middle school life skills workbook? A great example for teen mothers? A women’s empowerment or single mother’s conference speaker? I’m your girl and will help any audience say, “S.O. What!”.
