Setbacks are inevitable in our career, with these setbacks potentially knocking our self-esteem. Research from Ohio State University shows that this doesn’t have to be this way, however. The study finds that when we view such setbacks as an inevitable stepping stone to new opportunities, our self-esteem doesn’t suffer.

“It’s not how many times you have had to give up. It is how you felt about the failures, and whether you thought they led to something better for you,” the researchers explain.

Career aspirations

Many young people have ideas about what they want to be in the future, and these ideas can be influenced by friends, family, and teachers, among others.

For example, a young woman might want to become a doctor because her advisor at school tells her she’s good at it. But she might change her mind later because others don’t think she’s qualified and decide to study psychology instead.

“It could be that she thinks this is a step down for her, and that she failed. That would harm her self-esteem,” the researchers say. “But she could also view psychology as more appropriate for her and a better fit, in which case her self-esteem would not suffer, despite the failure to become a doctor.”

Responding to setbacks

The researchers did two studies. In the first one, they asked 59 college students to fill out two surveys, one at the start of the semester and one at the end. In the first survey, they were asked, “How often have you given up on a career goal?” without saying when.

Then, they had to rate how much they regretted giving up on past career goals to follow their current one on a scale from 1 (definitely not) to 9 (definitely). They also had to say if they agreed with statements like “I have good qualities.”

After three months, at the end of the semester, all students rated their self-esteem again. The results showed that students gave up on career goals from one to five times.

Suffering self-esteem

Overall, the study found that when students gave up on career goals more often, their self-esteem went down during the semester. But if they didn’t regret those changes much, their self-esteem didn’t change much. On the other hand, those who regretted their career changes a lot did see their self-esteem drop.

The second study had 64 college students, and it was similar. They also had to say if changing their career goals in the past had led to a better career path.

“We found that when people felt their career goal failures led to something better, that takes away that hit to self-esteem,” the researchers explain.

Ultimately, we should strive to approach failure in a way that can help us to grow in the long run.

“We’re all going to have failures, some more than others. But it is how you interpret those failures that matters in the long run in terms of how you feel about yourself,” the authors conclude.