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Overcoming Obstacles

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For some reason part of the human condition is to face hurdles and obstacles. What stops us is that we often give up in the face of life’s challenges.

Everyone experiences obstacles in life. A successful life always involves coming across obstacles and working out how to overcome them. In fact the more you achieve in life, the more obstacles you come across. The faster you are moving the more quickly you will meet obstacles! So expect to meet challenges, but also expect to overcome them. Remember that to succeed in life this is the psychology you must have. The reason unsuccessful people are unsuccessful is that they have allowed life’s obstacles to stop them or derail them. We can all look back at times of our lives that this has happened. But that is the “you” of the past. The “YOU” of the future easily overcomes the challenges and obstacles of life.

There are no insurmountable obstacles to you achieving your dreams and your aspirations. There are hundreds of examples of people who had bigger challenges than you and I, but who achieved in wonderful ways and lived incredible lives.

Here is a simple Four Step process you can use to Overcome Obstacles in Your Life:

Step 1 – Prioritize Your Obstacles

Start with a blank piece of paper and write down all of the obstacles you are facing in your life right now.

Next prioritize them (put them in order of importance).

Once you have done this, pick the top three. These should be the three biggest obstacles you have. When you overcome these three obstacles, you will make a giant leap in improving your life and you will take a big step closer to your goals.

Step 2 – Exercise: Bite Sized

Start with three blank pieces of paper. Write each obstacle at the top of each page. Each obstacle might look like this:

Obstacle 1: I don’t like my job and my career path.

Obstacle 2: I am overweight and unfit and I lack energy. Obstacle 3: I do not seem to be able to get ahead financially.

This is a time to be really honest with yourself about where you are compared to where you want to be.

Bite Sized

There is an old Indian proverb: “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”

So now you need to take each obstacle and deal with it in single bite-sized piece at a time. This is important because if you break any obstacle into bite sized pieces you can deal with the challenge one piece at a time. Suddenly the obstacle itself does not look huge, it simply looks like a few bite-sized pieces each of which is manageable. In time you will easily prevail.

Example

Let’s work through a simple example. Note: This is NOT for you to follow as I do not know your situation. It is simply an explanatory example.

Obstacle: I am overweight and unfit and I lack energy.

Break this obstacle into bite sized pieces, with each one leading you towards overcoming your obstacle:

Piece 1: Sustainably lose two pounds (one kilo) per month for six months.

Piece 2: Eat five portions of fresh fruit and vegetables per day.

Piece 3: Find an exercise buddy to work with.

Piece 4: Exercise 3 hours per week for Month 1, Exercise 4 hours per week for Month 2, Exercise 5 hours per week for Month 3; and so on.

Piece 5: Remove 30% of processed foods from my diet.

Piece 6: Remove 30% of non-natural sugars from my diet.

Piece 7: Drink 4 pints (2.5 litters) of water per day.

Piece 8: Cut my caffeine intake by at least 50%.

Piece 9: Reduce my junk food intake by at least 50%.

Piece 10: Ensure I am in bed with the light off eight hours before I need to get up.

Now your “obstacle” that used to be the BIG “I’m overweight, I’m unfit, I have no energy” mountain is cut down into easily achievable bite-sized pieces that you can manage.

Do this exercise for each of the three obstacles you wrote down.

Step 3 – Look Up

To help you get motivation to succeed in consuming these bite-sized pieces, take time out to “Look Up”.

Take your eyes off the obstacles and instead look up and ahead. Think about what your life is going to be like when you overcome these obstacles. Visualize the Lifestyle of your dreams and get energy, enthusiasm and motivation from where you are heading, not from what is going on right now.

Step 4 – Look Back

To get enthusiastic about taking on those bite-sized pieces it is useful to “Look Back”.

Take time to look back and see how far you have come. Celebrate where you are now compared to where you were five years ago. Look back at previous obstacles you have conquered. Remember your past victories and allow them to give you power to smash through the next obstacle!

Summary

We all have obstacles and challenges in life. What separates successful and unsuccessful people is how they deal with the obstacles.

Expect to have obstacles, and more importantly expect to be victorious in overcoming them.

One of the best ways to overcome obstacles is to break them down into small easily digestible pieces. Then simply deal with each piece in turn until you have overcome the obstacle.

Sometimes we need extra motivation to get going and keep going. If you find yourself in this place take some time out to “Look Up” and “Look Ahead” to where you are going. Remind yourself how good life is going to be when you have overcome this obstacle.

It is also good to remind ourselves that we have overcome lots of obstacles in the past. We have come a long way already! Celebrate your past victories and use that strength and enthusiasm to give you momentum to tackle your current challenges.

Obstacles Self Talk

You might like to write out and repeat these self talk statements to help you reprogram your mind to overcome obstacles.

“I like obstacles because that is where I leave my competitors behind.” “I embrace obstacles because they cause me to learn and grow.”

“I enjoy obstacles because they give me the opportunity to solve a problem and overcome a challenge.”


 


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