What happens after you fail?

What do you do?

Setting out to achieve a goal requires the mobilization of a lot of energy from an organism. A coyote will only chase a rabbit so far before giving up their chase. At a certain point, the chase requires more effort than there are calories in the rabbit. The coyote, has come up short.

With humans, our brains require an enormous volume of calories to keep going. Between planning a project and obsessing over what it could look like, we spend a lot of energy working towards a goal. Once we take our thoughts and put them into action, that energy increases exponentially.

It’s no wonder then that when we fail we have big feelings. Our nervous system has been primed. There’s been a lot of physical energy running through us in our attempts to reach our goals. When the energy doesn’t land, when it doesn’t have the desired result of helping us move forward, the disappointment can feel like a gut punch. What once was fuel either disappears and we get depressed or we have so much physical energy wit…