Twice-fired basketball coach John Calipari wrote a wonderful guide to getting back on our feet after setbacks. In his book "Bounce Back," he makes it clear that life has a number of setbacks, not just one we fix, learn from, and then live smoothly ever after.
Another point he makes is that setbacks, like Tolstoy's notion of unhappy families, are all different. Therefore, although we learned from the one we had when we were 55 and lost a job, we shouldn't try to superimpose those lessons on the new crisis. That will only keep us stuck.
The book is both inspirational and yet firm in leading us away from the worst mindsets and behaviors when a career or a personal matter sours. For example, he rails against hiding, that is isolating ourselves from the world. Being out there will help us heal quicker and devise a solid plan to moving forward.
What the book did for me is to stop my attempt to remedy my most recent professional setback with the tactics I used in 2003 (Download Geezerguts). Had I recognized this mistake earlier I might have already cleared away the obstacles I am still dealing with now.
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