Overcoming discouragement?

Very rarely, I happen to get discouraged. It just happened to me last week, and it didn't last long, just a few hours. I know it’s a normal feeling and that’s how I manage it. I realize that moments of discouragement are normal for most of us, even when they occur rarely. 

When it happens to me, I don’t try to deny it, I just acknowledge it since it’s in me, and take advantage of that moment to turn this seemingly negative experience into an opportunity to constructively regain a sense of purpose and motivation. I would say that the toughest part of this process is to acknowledge and validate that feeling, even more so for men than for women. 

I try to just observe the feeling, reminding myself that it won’t last long and that it’s pretty usual. It doesn't mean I've failed or that my efforts are worthless, I simply try to ask myself what put me in that mental state? Was it a setback, a piece of news, a feeling of being stuck, or something else? In my case, it never fails, it's always falling short from executing correctly, under-performing or being beaten by someone else. Both perfectionism and competitiveness at work! 

Understanding all this helps me address the root cause of my problems or just gain clarity and place the event into proper perspective within the grand scheme of things. If there’s something I can learn out of discouragement, it’s to draw the lessons that will benefit me and move quickly away from it. Since for me, this happens quite rarely, these strategies have been working fine. 

I hope they’ll help too if you try them!