We all get disappointed at times. We wanted to get something and we didn’t get it. A job that went to someone else. A date that got cancelled and never followed up on. An offer that you expected, but that never came. A publication that, after several review rounds, still gets rejected. It can be especially painful when you know that the likelihood of you being chosen was very high, like when you’re interviewing as one of the last two for a role. As I have experienced this disappointment many times in my life, I have slowly learned to manage it. The best way to manage it is, in my experience, to force yourself to identify the advantages of not having got what you wanted. When you really want something, you start to become irrational and see only the positives and not the backside. For example, the job may require you to travel extensively, disrupting your life outside of work. By focusing your energy on identifying and visualizing the downsides of what you wanted and didn’t get, you may even end up in a place where you feel you dodged a bullet. Sometimes, not getting what you want may be the best thing that could have happened to you.