Disappointment can be a very destructive emotion if you don’t deal with it quickly. Disappointment is the devastating feeling of being “let down” or that you’re going to miss out on something forever. Anything that makes you feel sad or defeated as a result of expecting more than you get is disappointing.
The message disappointment offers you is that an expectation you have had—a goal you were really going for—is probably not going to “happen, so it’s time to change your expectations to make them more appropriate for this situation and take action to set and achieve a new goal immediately. And that is the solution.
1) Immediately figure out something you can learn from this situation that could help you in the future to achieve the very thing you were after in the first place.
2) Set a new goal, something that will be even more inspiring, and something you can make immediate progress toward.
3) Realize that you may be judging too soon. Often the things you’re disappointed about are only temporary challenges. As I’ve said, you and I need to remember that God’s delays are not God’s denials. You may just be in what I call “lag time.” People often set themselves up for disappointment by having completely unrealistic expectations. If you go out today and plant a seed, you can’t go back tomorrow and expect to see a tree.
4) A fourth major solution to dealing with disappointment is to realize that a situation isn’t over yet, and develop more patience. Completely reevaluate what you truly want, and begin to develop an even more effective plan for achieving it.
5) The most powerful antidote to the emotion of disappointment is cultivating an attitude of positive expectancy about what will happen in the future, regardless of what has occurred in the past.
Tony Robbins. “Awaken the Giant Within.”