Overcoming Obstacles: Techniques for Staying Motivated Through Challenges
What does it take to overcome obstacles? This post will describe how to approach challenging situations and overcome them.
There is nothing worse than spending your time and effort building something only to find out that people don't care for it. A great way to deal with this is to start thinking of obstacles as challenges and use this mindset to help you achieve the greatest possible outcome.
Challenges are things that present themselves in front of you. When I say 'challenges', I mean anything that makes your day unpleasant or unenjoyable. It could be a bad mood, a tough situation or simply an obstacle.
There are three approaches to dealing with challenges. The first is to run away from them and ignore them altogether. The second is to give up on them and stop trying. The third option is to deal with them head-on.
In order to choose the correct approach, you need to consider your level of motivation. For example, are you simply going through the motions, or are you genuinely interested in achieving the goal?
To help you choose the right approach to dealing with challenging situations, I've outlined them below.
- Avoidance - Run away
When you feel like you are about to fail, try to avoid the challenge at all costs. If you are feeling down, try to take a walk or go outside. If you're having a stressful day, take some time off and get a massage or call a friend.
By avoiding challenges, you prevent yourself from ever finding a solution.
- Denial - Give Up
When you have a bad day, you might think that your problems will never go away. You may believe that there's absolutely no way that things will ever change. It's important to know that your bad days won't last forever.
After a while, the stress levels will slowly drop off and the sun will come out. In the same vein, if you can keep your attitude from turning into total despair, then eventually your mood will return to normal.
One thing I've noticed when dealing with challenging situations is that I always seem to find a way out. At first I was so overwhelmed by the situation, but after a while I realized that if I didn't stop thinking negatively and look at all the possibilities, I wouldn't have found any solutions.
- Commitment - Deal With It Head On
To overcome obstacles, you need to face them head-on and deal with them. It's important to realize that the road to overcoming an obstacle is going to be bumpy at times.
There are two major types of obstacles that people face - external and internal. External obstacles are things outside of your control such as other people's opinion. Internal obstacles are the things within your control such as the way you feel.
Some people get excited when faced with an obstacle. If this is you, then you're likely to use avoidance as the best solution to dealing with challenges.
