Staying Resilient: What To Do When You Fall Off Track

It's easy to fall off track from your goals. You are only human after all. But you need to have the resilience to get back on track. Did you know that Apollo space missions get course corrected almost 97% of the time? And these spaceships were built by the smartest minds. If they can go off track and course-correct, you can too. Join Yanet Borrego as she explains how you can practice resilience. Embrace the challenges and learn how to have a clear vision so that you can continue in your journey.

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Staying Resilient: What To Do When You Fall Off Track

I am beyond excited for this topic because it's one that I'm deeply passionate about. It is about how to stay resilient when you fall off track from your goals, desired outcome, maybe from not experiencing the progress you have wanted so far. All of these things are going to happen whenever we are trying to do things we have never done before and install habits, have goals, and target results we have never experienced before. I want to get this first thing out of the way. It is totally okay to fall off track. What matters is what you do next and in those moments where you have a clear path and you are working towards that path and you fall off track. What happens then for you?

I'm going to talk about a couple of things and practical advice as always because I want you to implement this. This is advice that you can implement wherever you are that is going to help you strengthen your foundation, to stay resilient no matter what knocks you off track. Funny story, this is probably the 30th or 40th time I've tried doing this episode. This is about resilience. I took it as a sign to lead by example. That's my reframe.

Real Life Example

At 6:00 PM, I had finished recording one episode, which audio was perfect. I recorded this resilience episode and something didn't sound right in the audio. Whenever you are a solopreneur, you get to do a little bit of everything, learn about audio software, hardware, and every possible thing in your business because, in the beginning, you're doing 90% of everything. That is the truth.

I recorded a twenty-minute episode to realize that the audio wasn't right. I was like, “This doesn't sound right. I cannot leave this here but today I'm not going to figure it out because I am exhausted.” My fiancé, Cody, had arrived home and we started eating dinner. I was like, “Many things have happened today. Some of them haven't gone my way like this podcast episode. I literally tested it at least ten times and it's having the same audio quality issues. I'm so frustrated. I don't know why this is happening right now.”

The biggest lesson of life is to develop that consistency of having a clear vision. No matter what happens in your path, you get back on.

 

It was one of those moments where you're overwhelmed and frustrated. It's the end of the day and you're exhausted. That was my mood. He tells me, “Why you don't Google it?” I honestly obsessed over getting this right for all of you, my beautiful readers, so I started googling it. There were a couple of things I came back to my office to try. When I came back to my office, I stayed for at least two hours trying to figure this out until I did after trying 10 or 20 times. I don't even remember how many. They have been a lot.

I was like, “I think I got it right. Tomorrow I'll come back.” I came back and tested the audio. It wasn't working again. I was like, “What is going on?” After twenty times testing the same thing, recording for at least one minute, which takes a long time, I finally got it and went for it. As I was going through this process, experiencing frustration and at the same time, I was trying to remain calm, centered and balanced so I can show up like that in this episode, I wasn't feeling it, to be honest with you.

I was thinking resilience is such an important part, mainly when you're trying to implement something new in your life. If you are reading this, I truly believe you're on this journey of wanting to grow, be better, and level up step by step. When you're doing that, you're stretching the boundaries of what you know and who you are to be even better and show up in meaningful ways. Whenever you do that, you are setting ambitious goals that you have never done before or maybe you have set those goals in the past but you have never followed through before.

Something that I tried to remind myself of is the journey is messy. It's not a straight line. There are many curves and that's totally okay because what counts is being resilient, not giving up, and being able to fall like a baby and get back up. Even connecting to that inner child of you on that playfulness, whenever you fail and you work curious to stand up again and see what happened, that's how we learned how to walk.

Clear Long-Term Direction

Why do we behave differently? I feel so many times that we are striving for this perfection that doesn't exist. Perfection is another way of procrastination. I have an episode about that. We strive for so much perfection creating this ideal desired outcome that doesn't exist anywhere. We forget about the process of this beautiful journey that we're going through of growing and getting back on track. I truly believe one of the most powerful moments of getting back on track and being resilient is having a clear, long-term direction.

If you have read other episodes, I say this over and over because it is important. You having a strong why and purpose, translate it into a clear vision of yourself, the person who you want to be in the future, the ideal version of you, the things that you want to do in the future, and have that be your driver to enable you to get back up because you believe in that purpose and that long-term direction so much. You believe in all the surveys and how much you're going to be giving back to the world whenever you get there, that it pulls you out of not wanting to be resilient, stumbling and it gets you back on track.

The first thing is to have a clear vision of what you want in life. I have this vision. I call it with my coaching clients and the students of my Discover Your Purpose Program digital course, the Avatar in Aim. Based on the longer-term direction of yourself, you set goals, the things that you want to achieve within the next year. These are goals that push your boundaries. Whenever you do something different or new, I mean in myself that I transitioned from my nine years of a corporate career to entrepreneurship.

Course Correcting

There have been countless ways that I've felt like giving up, where I have fallen and gotten back up because my purpose and vision of myself are strong that it's magnetic. It is literally pulling me back on track because I believe in what I'm doing. One of the biggest lessons of life is developing that consistency of being resilient and having a clear vision that you get back on no matter what happens in your path. I love this book. It's called The Slight Edge. All my coaching clients read it and I've read it three times already.

Create the space to connect with your own input.

 

The author provides a meaningful term for this. His term is course-correcting. Whenever you get out of course, you course-correct. I love two of the examples that he provides. He provides an example of you driving a car. You are at the steering wheel while you're driving this car. The car is not going to go on a straight line only as you course-correct because you are the driver. That's exactly how we need to behave in our lives. We are the driver of our destiny. Many times, our unconscious programming world because we are used to doing things the same way over and over, it takes over. It is our responsibility to be aware of that, recognize those unhealthy and self-sabotaging patterns, just let that go, and get back on track.

In order to do that, it's important that you also recognize the progress that you have had, that you recognize that whenever you get off track to be compassionate and kind towards yourself. It's funny because sometimes my coaching clients, part of what we do is also developing a daily practice. I helped them design these. Part of this practice is meditating. It is creating the space to connect with your own input, which is something that, unfortunately, we don't do enough of.

Recognizing Progress & Forgiving Yourself

It's something new so sometimes they fall off track, they come to a session and they are like, “I feel that all the progress I've made went out of the window.” I know how they feel because I do this too. Sometimes we are so hard on ourselves when we fall off track. We think that all the progress we did up until that point has disappeared and gone.

I'm here to let you know that is not the case. Whenever you see yourself falling off track, I want you to recognize your progress and see how far you have gone or grown into the first time you started working on yourself. See that the challenges that you're working through right now are different than the challenges you used to work through five years ago. That is progress. Progress equals happiness. Whenever we feel stuck, flat-lined, we feel unfulfilled or there is no meaning but whenever we have that clear direction and start progressing step-by-step, the worst is there, which creates momentum. That is what makes us continue moving forward. It is important to remain kind and compassionate towards yourself when that happens.

Embracing The Journey

The second part is to forgive yourself. Acknowledge, “I know I wasn't consistent at this time. What do I need to do next? What is my intention as I move forward?” After being compassionate, kind, and forgiving yourself, it is asking, “Based on the long-term direction that I have of myself, what can I do to get on track?” The second example of this book that I was talking about that Jeff also provides is an interesting one. I didn't know this.

Apparently, the Apollo rocket, the one NASA designed, whenever it arrives on the moon safely, 97% of that journey to the moon goes off track, and then the computer programming that NASA has developed course-corrects their rocket to get on track. Ninety-seven percent of the time is course-correcting. The Apollo Rocket goes off track, the computer programming course-corrects back on track. Literally, 97% of the time goes away.

That's pretty much a reflection of our lives too because we got to let go of this concept of perfection and we're going to get it right the first time. We have to start embracing that the journey is messy and that a lot of times, we're going to go off course and that's totally okay because we are human beings. Even the Apollo Rocket, designed by the smartest minds, which is a piece of technology in a machine, needs to course-correct over and over. Why? It’s because there are many challenges and distractions along the way. There are rocks and meteorites. I don't know what happens in space but there are many things.

Feedback Over Failure

When you take this analogy and put it back in your life, life is the same. Maybe this day you are planning to do something and then a personal emergency happens or something else comes up. It is important to allow time for reflection and see where we can course-correct. I wanted to give you that example because I thought it was genius and there are many commonalities to life. The other example I like to provide, which I provide in my course, the Discover Your Purpose Program, is about Thomas Edison.

You have not failed 10,000 times. You've successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.

 

As you might know, Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. He tried many times unsuccessfully until he got it right one time. He probably was one of the most resilient people ever because he was obsessed with the idea. He was engaged with the process of what he was doing. That's why I'm all about purpose and gaining clarity because in this journey, in order to be resilient and get back on track, you got to truly love and enjoy what you're doing.

You got to truly love and be passionate about the journey because it is not easy. It's going to get messy. It has a lot of curves. After failing 10,000 times, Thomas didn’t give up. The next time he made it happen. It's funny because he was having an interview with a reporter. The reporter asked him, “What does it feel to know that you failed 10,000 times at inventing the light bulb?” Do you know what he said? “I have not failed 10,000 times. I've successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.” I love this reframe because he immediately understood that he was learning in the process.

He remained curious through the journey and understood that there was no failure. There was only feedback. Feedback of, “This method didn't work. Let's try another one.” I feel sometimes we give up the first time it doesn't work but what about the 2nd and 3rd one? We all have heard the story about Disney. The person who founded Disney and how many times he tried to get a loan and every bank denying it until he got one bank that said yes. That yes completely changed his life and the lives of many people.

The founder of Spanx went to different manufacturers and everyone thought that was the dumbest idea until Sara Blakely got to one male who was the leader of the manufacturing facility. He had two daughters. When she showed the product to him, he asked his daughters if that product was going to help them and they said yes. That’s when Sara Blakely's life changed. With that, so many of our lives change.

Honestly, I haven't used Spanx yet but I've heard it's amazing. I may use it for my wedding. Who knows? I'll give you an update on that one. We all live in patterns. You see a pattern of successful people and people who are creative, who are constantly growing and changing other people's lives. It doesn't matter the scale. It can be small scale, medium, or large. Resilience and knowing how to get back on track are a must for anything you want to do in life.

Some Practical Tips

We were born with resilience because you can totally see a child in their baby faces and see how resilient they are because that's our natural state to get back on track, try again and remain curious. I wanted to give you a couple of practical tips for things that you can think of whenever you face a challenge and you know you have to get back on track and struggle.

The first piece of advice is to think of everything as, “There is no failure, only feedback.” The only failure there is one of not trying. Why not try and learn as you go? The more you try, the more you learn, the more wisdom you gain in this life and the better it gets, I promise. Sometimes it's about taking action and getting uncomfortable. It's okay to start small. It's okay not to be perfect the first time.

The second one is, even with your car, with the Apollo rocket, course-correct. Every time you deviate from your goals, course-correct. First of all, be compassionate, kind, forgive yourself, and then course-correct. The important thing is to have that longer-term direction that will pull you towards the direction you have been intentional with. Being intentional in this process is a very important tool.

The third piece of advice is to embrace the journey. I've got a lot better but sometimes we get so attached to the outcome. It is essential to embrace the journey and the process of life because it's never-ending. Why not embrace a journey, learn and remain curious in the process? The next practical advice is to do your best always. Show up as your best.

Showing up is 80% of the journey. If you show up, I know you're going to give your best. Push yourself to show up and then do your best was inspired by one of my favorite books, The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Reyes. He says in that book, “Your best is going to be different every day. Be kind to yourself and recognize that.” Do your best always and recognize that your best will be different every day and that's okay. Embrace how you're going to show up today. That's all that matters. Today is the only moment we have for now. However you feel is okay.

The next one is progress and consistency over perfection. Let go of perfection. I have another episode on this one. Check it out. Letting go of perfection is so important because so many times, we go into analysis paralysis and we don't do anything. The more you practice resilience and the more action you take, the more your confidence and momentum build up, even if it's imperfect. Show up. You don't have to be perfect. You are not perfect. I am not perfect. Why are we trying to portray a persona that doesn't make sense and is not realistic to us? I want to see you imperfect. That's what I love about you that we all get to share our flaws and that's totally okay because we are all growing in this journey. The next one, which I feel it's one that we don't talk about enough, make it fun. The journey and challenges are going to be there. Let's make it fun. Remain curious and playful with everything we go through in life.

This is the end just for now because I know I'll see you in the next episode. I want to appreciate your presence here because you are showing up. I want to recognize that you're staying resilient because you are here, showing up, and keep going. Incorporate all these things that we have talked about during this episode. Knowledge is potential power. Action is real power.

I want you to think of, based on everything we spoke about, what is one thing that you're going to implement moving forward so you can show up more resilient whenever you go off track? I'm there with you in your office, house, or car. I don't know where you are right now. I want you to think of one thing quickly. I am proud of you. If you found this helpful, share it with someone else. This is important to get the message across. As always, I’m super grateful for you. I hope you have a wonderful day. I'll see you in the next episode.

Important Links

• Episode – Past Episode
• Discover Your Purpose Program
• The Slight Edge
• The Four Agreements
• https://www.YBCoaching.com/Clarity
• https://www.YBCoaching.com/Wellness5MinsRoutine
• https://www.Facebook.com/YanetBCoaching/ – Yanet Borrego Coaching
• https://www.Instagram.com/YanetBCoaching/ – Yanet Borrego Coaching
• https://www.LinkedIn.com/company/Yanet-Borrego-Coaching/?viewAsMember=true – Yanet Borrego Coaching
• https://www.YouTube.com/channel/UCqxL829o0Vk-QdY12F-GgMw – With Clarity & Purpose