How setbacks at work can actually benefit your career

For most workers, setbacks are a part of everyday life. The current job market has proven particularly challenging, with people sending out thousands of applications but not receiving a single response.

When you lose your job, you may feel like the end of the world is near, and rightly so. Living in an unstable environment is never easy, but there are hopes to hold on to when times get tough.

Setbacks at work can boost your career by making you reevaluate what's important.

Studies by the Harvard Business Review have shown that all of these obstacles also have positive aspects.

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The researchers surveyed 42 young employees from different industries and compared those who had experienced setbacks with those who had not. They found that the people who had experienced setbacks had to rethink who they were and where they wanted to go, which led to a reorientation of their career goals.

Setbacks help people reorient their career path to better suit their true personality.

When you're pushed off your expected path, you need to look at your life from a different perspective. This new perspective can show you what's important to you, both in and out of the workplace.

Instead of moving on and moving from one rung of the career ladder to the next, a setback makes people rethink their goals. In a way, they are forced to think about how their goals and skills might have changed over the years and see their future with new perspectives.

4:00 p.m. Production | Shutterstock

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Losing your job can be a blow to your confidence, but it can also open doors to opportunities you may never have imagined.

These new opportunities can bring you fulfillment in ways that may not have been possible in your old job.

There are numerous examples of job losses that were actually successes. There are engineers who are laid off and become carpenters. There are teachers who move to an office and never look back.

Sometimes we need an external force to knock us over, give us a jolt and show us what we are missing and what we really need.

The researchers also found that people who didn't experience setbacks at work tended to stay on the same beaten path they'd always been on, less willing to embrace change or even recognize that there were other options.

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It's completely understandable to feel stuck in your career after a setback. Anyone who's ever lost a job knows there's a grieving period where you live in your pajamas, eat cereal for dinner, and feel like a total failure.

But our work doesn't have to be the only thing that gives us drive, meaning, or passion. In fact, it's more than OK if your job is just a job and you find validation and fulfillment in what you do after work.

Showing gratitude in the face of loss isn't easy. Nor is maintaining a positive attitude when you've lost your footing. But the end of a job isn't necessarily the end of the world. Keep your eyes open for opportunities you haven't yet explored and see what you find.

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Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team, covering social issues, pop culture, and all things entertainment.