How many of you get stuck on a project when you’ve got too much on your plate? Or more specifically encountered a roadblock and not moving forward.
The next time you’re feeling defeated or overwhelmed, take a step back and resist the urge to look ahead. Instead, take a moment to look back.
If you are familiar with the concept of emotional intelligence, you might be familiar with this term, but I want to elaborate a little for those who are not.
What is Reappraisal?
Reappraisal involves mentally reframing an event to reduce the negative emotions you feel.
This is not the same thing as reconsideration, which is the act of “thinking” about something again, especially to change a decision or opinion.
Reappraisal is the act of “assessing or evaluating something again,” often to determine its current value or worth.
While both involve revisiting a previous decision, reconsideration involves a potential change in opinion or decision, while reappraisal is focused on reassessing value or worth. And to help change your mindset.
For example, let’s say for example that I spilled the soda that I was going to have for lunch, and I now only have water left to drink.
I might tell myself that well, “It’s okay because at least I have water; there are people who have nothing out there to drink in countries with food and water insecurities”.
That can also be self-limiting, though, because if anyone grew up with parents who said things like “eat your peas; there are people starving in other countries.” I did. There was no direct connection to the reasoning. I never knew someone from another country when I was a child who didn’t have enough to eat, and while I have met people over the years with those challenges from other countries and sadly this country as well, I didn’t have a personal connection with them then.
If I reframed that reasoning now as “it’s okay because at least I have water, clean water to drink, there are people who have nothing out there in my town with food and clean water insecurities.” It’s a lot more relatable.
But you can also look at things from a self-improvement standpoint, which is how I prefer to reframe things.
“I dropped my soda, and maybe that’s a good thing because it’s high in sugar and calories, and this can help me stay on my diet.”
There is no wrong way to do this; it’s only about reassessing and reevaluating.
Let’s take a business example.
You are a software engineer, and you just programmed a new AI platform and released it into the wilds of the internet for use.
After just 2 hours, you have reports of the AI giving people bad and inaccurate information, and you have to pull the plug.
You are depressed and unmotivated because you and your team spent thousands of hours programming this AI, AND now you have to reinvigorate and remotivate your team (and yourself) to redo it and fix it.
Instead of dwelling on the issue and bringing your team and yourself down with your failure, reassess and apply the Rule of Reappraisal.
You don’t want reconsideration, which is the act of “thinking” about something again. You want the assessment of the issue AND to identify and practice the core questions around reappraisal.
You don’t have to use all of them, but identifying a couple can help change the mindset.
Questions to ask yourself:
-Were there, or will there be, any positive outcomes that result from this situation?
-Are you grateful for any part of this situation?
-In what ways are you better off than when you started?
-What did you learn? (Maybe the most important one)
An example might be your need to leave a new program in beta longer and get more testers before opening it to the public.
-How did you grow and develop as a result of this situation?
An example might be you learned how to knit your team into a very cohesive working group during this project, and because of that, future projects will be more efficient.
-Why is it important to build reappraisal ability?
When we change the way we think about our experiences, it helps in not letting things get to us that can drag us down.
We are able to see challenges as opportunities and begin to view our lives in terms of strengths instead of weaknesses. It also helps to reduce negative emotions.
Don’t focus on the path ahead. Look back at what you’ve already accomplished.
The next time you feel that your day, your week, or even your year was a failure or the latest project you deep-dived into just didn’t make the cut, resist the urge to look ahead only.
This is especially important as a business owner because you can get mired down in not rethinking and reassessing something that perhaps didn’t work or didn’t go the way you planned, and it can derail your motivation, which can affect how your business operates.
Instead, take a few moments to look back and reappraise. You would be surprised by all that you have already accomplished.