Don't Feel Bad for Yourself

Lets talk about not feeling bad for yourself, and I am going to use my story a bit to explain. I am obviously very disappointed with my GRE score, which is fine because I put a lot of hard work into it and I wanted to be better. Although I still feel bummed, I am doing a few things that is helping me move past it in a productive way.

First, ironically, I felt bad for myself.  But, I only gave myself a 10 minute window. I took the time to get all of the excuses and complaints out of my system so I could start doing something more actionable. Next, I wrote down my thoughts and reflected on my preparation, mental state, and impressions about my performance. I know this will be helpful to have in the future and it helped me realize some areas for improvement.  Next, I refocused my attention. I still have an application to complete, and having that task helped me realize that there is nothing else I can do about my score for now. Also, if I want to make up for it, I still have a way to do that in my application. After getting some quality work done, I went for a run to squeeze the remaining emotion I had left in me and also push my body. Reaching my physical goal for the day gave me a small win that is helping me build my momentum back up. Lastly, once I was in a more objective state, I called up a good friend of mine, whose opinion I really respect, and picked apart the takeaways from my experience for the day.

All in all, I am very happy with how I responded to the unfortunate news. The thesis is feeling bad for yourself is never going to help.