Increase Creativity A-Z- D Is For Disappointment- How To Bounce Back From Creative Disappointments

A major factor in how creative you are over a long period of time is not related to how much raw creative talent you have.

It's also not about what it is you create, or how, why and where you create it.

One of the key elements that decide how consistently you create is actually your attitude and approach to dealing with disappointment.

No-one likes to be disappointed or let down.

But it will happen to all of us, more than once in our creative lives. And when it does we can let it set us back, or use it to move forward. And you know which of those is the better option to take.

So, here's a 3 step plan to help you bounce back from those disappointments and use them to increase your creativity to new levels:

1. Accept that there will be disappointments. It's a part of life. Your book didn't get accepted for publishing. Your new songs didn't get the response you were hoping for. If you expect everything to go perfectly smoothly all the time, it's just not going to happen.

If you give your best effort each time you create, that's all you can do. The rest is out of your hands. You can't influence everything that happens to you. But you CAN control how you react to disappointment. Which takes us on to:

2. See disappointment as a tool for learning. When you're disappointed in the outcome of something, ask yourself what it was that really made you feel that way.

Ask also if your expectations were realistic beforehand. However you answer these challenging questions, be open and honest with yourself. Then ask what you can learn from the experience to get better results next time.

3. Move on, don't dwell on it. After a disappointment in your creative work, the worst thing you can do – and something that's all too easy TO do – is give up.

This was just one occasion where it didn't turn out as you expected. How are you going to take the lessons learned, and your greater level of experience forward to your next creative project?

This simple 3 step plan will help you to bounce back from the inevitable disappointments you'll experience now and again in your creative life, and actually increase your creativity as you move forward.