Life comes with challenges. How you handle challenges says a lot about your life. Big challenges can be especially intimidating.
Many people feel overwhelmed when faced with adversity, but this is unnecessary. All challenges, both big and small, can be handled with the same basic strategy.
When you feel confident that you can handle any challenge, you have more opportunities available to you.
Use this process to deal with the challenges in your life proactively:
1. Set a goal. Goals are helpful in many situations, including overcoming a big challenge. If you want to be successful, set a goal. Setting a goal accomplishes several things:
◦ It focuses your time and attention on a solution, rather than putting your attention on the problem.
◦ It makes it clearer how you should be spending you time.
◦ It gives you the best chance to overcome your big challenge.
◦ It makes you feel like you have some control over your life.
◦ If there’s nothing you can do about the challenge you’re facing, avoid spending any time or energy on it. Work on something else instead.
2. Avoid wasting time. If you have a big challenge in your life, you can’t afford to waste your time on silly things. Identify you biggest time-wasters and commit to spending that time on your solution instead. You might find that overcoming your challenge wasn’t as difficult as you thought it would be.
3. Create a plan. You have a goal, and you’re not going to waste time. So, now you need a plan that will help you accomplish your solution.
◦ What has to happen immediately before you accomplish your goal? Keep working back until you reach an action you can take today. Now, all you have to do is perform that action. What could be simpler?
◦ Just keep going like this, step by step, to make a successful plan.
4. Get help. The more resources you can utilize to make your solution a reality, the better the odds of success. It will also speed up the process greatly. Get whatever help you can. Now isn’t the time to be bashful. You can always repay the favor at a later date.
5. Visualize success. Visualization makes your objective clear. It also gives you a boost of confidence and keeps you focused. See yourself successfully overcoming this challenge. Visualize a few times each day.
6. Persevere. If you have a plan, you’re working your plan, and you’re not wasting time, the only thing left to do is hang in there. There’s not much you can’t accomplish if don’t give up. Keep working your plan and persevere!
7. Determine how to avoid a similar situation. If the treads came off your tires, now you know to replace your tires sooner. If your ex-boyfriend stole all of your money, you know that you need to protect your finances better.
◦ Consider how this challenge came to be, and how you can prevent it from happening again. It would be a shame to go through all of this grief and not learn from it. Use your challenges to ultimately become more capable.
◦ Just be sure to solve your challenge before taking this last step. Focus on your solution first. Worry about prevention later.
The bigger your goals and aspirations, the bigger the challenges you’ll face. It’s important to have a strategy for dealing with challenges when they arise.
The worst thing you can do is nothing. If there’s a solution, it’s important to actively pursue it rather than sitting around worrying. Your success is largely determined by your ability to overcome challenges.
If you’re facing a big challenge, do what you can to find a solution. Avoid the tendency to sit around and worry about the situation. Be solution-focused!