OK, so no one in their right mind would slash three tires because one tire has a flat. So, why would you allow one setback to deter you from accomplishing your goal? What if the setback was designed to determine how bad you really wanted the goal?

I remember going to grad school, which was two and a half hours away from the city in which I lived. Classes were held during the week and at that time I was working full-time. I knew someone who wanted to go to the same graduate school as well. We decided that we could carpool to alleviate the burden of having to drive two and a half hours away one way twice per week, while working a full-time job. Just as soon as we put the plan in place, she made the decision to relocate. What was I to do? I hated to drive and I did not want to drive that many hours by myself. I could have given up on my goal of going to grad school altogether or even transferred to another school, but I was determined to go to that particular university because it was a better fit for me.

I made up my mind to continue on with the plan and not let the change of plans deter me from the bigger goal. I drove alone the first day of class and it wasn’t as bad of a drive as I originally thought although I certainly didn’t want to do it a couple of times a week by myself. Once I got to class, I met another group of ladies with the same goal. We exchanged numbers and decided to carpool together. This time instead of two chicks taking turns driving; there would be four of us taking turns driving. What a relief! Although I never had the same set of ladies to carpool with, I always had a set of goal oriented women to carpool with during my tenure at that university, which aided in making my goal of obtaining my graduate degree achievable. What was even better was that we had so much fun and I was able to build a network of pretty sharp people. The graduate degree was beneficial in opening many doors for me throughout my career.

What if I had allowed the initial setback to prevent me from achieving my goals?

Question: What goals do you need to go back and revisit? I once heard someone say that a setback is nothing but an opportunity for a comeback. Start working on your comeback because it’s time.