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How to Roll with the Punches in Life

By Arel Moodie

· Instant Ideas,Conversation,Personal,Self-Improvement,Psychology

"Roll with the punches in life," you've heard. You're supposed to take tough situations and just deal with them. Much easier said than done.

In today's episode of the Art of Likability, we will discuss the psychology to adopt when "rolling with the punches" and how other people have "rolled with the punches."

It's a really interesting phrase...

In boxing, they tell you to roll with the punches so you can soften or deflect incoming attacks.

Isn't it interesting how this phrase made it to everyday speak? Now, rolling with the punches also refers to how you can deal with metaphorical punches coming at you in real life!

The Psychology Behind "Rolling with the Punches"

You just took a hit, a setback, a failure. It doesn't feel good. Even worse: it happened in front of a group. They saw you at a bad moment; the shame just flat out sucks.

Now doesn't seem like a good time to try your luck again. But then you remember that you have to roll with the punches. This phrase is a beacon of light in the midst of cloudy, deprecating thoughts.

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You can't let that one failure define you and get you down. Instead of letting yourself get KO'd by the hit and staying down for the count, you turn your shoulder, you change your understanding and your approach...

...and you hit back.

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How I Had to Roll with the Punches

I had a recent speaking engagement in which there would be a deaf interpreter. She mentioned to me to be cautious with using the word "penguin" because her interpretation would look silly. I thought mentioning "Penguin" would be funny, funny like this .gif below:

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I got a laugh from the audience, so that reinforced what I thought. At the time, it seemed like a nice piece of humor in a talk about making a leap of faith.

Little did I know that one of the students made a huge leap of faith in coming to this college as a deaf student. She let me know that while she enjoyed the message, she felt that this episode poked fun at her condition. I was mortified that I had let this happen.

I was hard on myself for this mistake before I finally rolled with the punches and reconciled that I made a mistake of the head and not of the heart.

Some may have just made a quiet mental note not to do it again, but I owned up to my mistake and notified the school of my understanding and condolences.

How One Woman Successfully Rolled with the Punches

If you were a college freshman, you have the entire world ahead of you.

Imagine all of that coming to an end one drunken party night, where you thought you "probably could" drive your friend home. Next thing you know...

Crash. Her friend is...pulseless. Her? Jail.

How the heck do you roll with those punches?

That's where Jessica Rasdall's story begins. Where it leads is a completely different place.

She's triumphed over what seemed like a nightmare and rolled from that punch into helping women business owners and spreading her message to audiences everywhere. Check her out: www.jessicarasdall.com

Rolling with the punches doesn't have to be all bad: my 2 year old son Devin wanted to be my co-star for this show and so he was!

I've got some (love) punches for you to roll with: The Art of Likability is holding a FREE LIVE WEBINAR where you'll get to interact with me directly! Punch in your email below to get the inside angle on the webinar!