One of the two teams that play in the Super Bowl has to lose.

At least one person loses each election, beauty contest or for that matter competing for future employment.

Disappointment needs to be owned – not ignored – because disappointment remains one of the most useful tools if we know how to use it.

May I share how I deal with it:

1. First night, sleep it off.  Don’t ruminate or over evaluate.  Rest first above all.
2. Be human, allow a chance to feel the disappointment but not for one moment allow that disappointment to be expressed as failure.
3. Then, focus on the great exhilaration that we are going to feel when we turn the disappointment into success.
4. Start gathering examples of disappointments that have been worth wading through – a second marriage, the better job you got when your dream job got away, the new friend that came into your life when a trusted friend hurt you.

Life is tough.

No one – not through power or money – can avoid disappointment.

It can be a great gift and very transformational.

The secret to rebounding from great disappointment is to eventually evolve into the positive person it can make us when we feel it, own it and come up with a plan to change it.

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope”  — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Subscribe   • Read Jerry’s book • More stories  • Talk to Jerry