Overcoming Challenges

“History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heart-breaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats.” – B. C. Forbes

Taken from a a blog post of Tony Fahkry's, a leading health and self-empowering expert, here he discusses the art in dealing with challenges. “Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition.” – Fahkry, T.

Fahkry mentions that identifying the purpose of a challenge will help in overcoming the obstacle. It helps you move through it rather than it taking over your life. This relates back to the idea of the broaden and build theory- once focusing on the positives, it opens up opportunities rather than focusing on the negatives which close your mind in.

It is sometimes needed to abandon endeavors that do not benefit the person. Often people don’t like to consider redirecting their attention when all their attempts are exhausted. In other words, not allowing in change. Again a connection is made where change will help a person to cope with an adversity, and develop other more positive aspects that are contributing factors towards maintaining a good emotional resilience -helps in building good relationships within the workplace, builds up more opportunities to come in (emotional resilience), helps maintain positivity.

Quoted from the blog post: Overcoming Obstacles

*Distance yourself emotionally: When facing an obstacle, emotions run high since you are reacting to the ensuing drama. Step back mentally and emotionally by viewing the obstacle from a greater perspective.

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Seek out necessary resources: Sometimes a person may lack something that will directly help to overcome their obstacle. The key is to acknowledge that your obstacle is ‘resource related’. Seeking someone else’s support or help will benefit, where there is a new perspective of what might be lacking

A guide to overcoming a challenge:

• Gain perspective: It can be overwhelming when an unforeseen obstacle emerges. Getting caught up in the ensuing crisis redirects vital resources required to make critical decisions. Gaining perspective allows you to step away from the ‘noise’. You might seek help from others, talk to friends or loved ones who may offer a different assessment of your challenge. Perspective does not imply distancing yourself in apathy. It simply means viewing the obstacle from numerous vantage points while considering other options.

• Evaluate the obstacle: Can something be done now to overcome the obstacle or does it require specialised assistance? Consider the obstacle objectively as though you were seeing it for the first time. Engage your logical mind by applying sound judgement to the task ahead. Avoid becoming emotionally invested while enslaved to the task. 

• Remain focused and committed: Oftentimes an obstacle is not intended to weaken your endeavours. Rather it is an invitation to get clear on the process in order to progress to the next stage. It is advising you to attend to a particular aspect now rather than the future, when you have invested valuable time and energy. You might recall Thomas Edison’s well-known passage regarding 1,000 ways that did not work to invent the light bulb. Be unrelenting in your commitment – do not give up. Do not allow setbacks to get you down. You are bound to fall upon many setbacks in life. Obstacles help enrich your mental experience in so far as building resilience, fortitude and strength. Every time you tackle a problem, you overcome a mental hurdle.

• Develop a growth mindset: In her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success author Carol Dweck delves deep into the two different mindsets required for success: fixed or growth focused mindsets. She provides the reader with a comprehensive foundation for developing a growth mindset, which is aspiring toward continuous improvement and building on your successes. She reminds us, “The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset. This is the mindset that allows people to thrive during some of the most challenging times in their lives.”

Fahkry, T. September 2012. How to Overcome Challenges and Setbacks, tonyfahkry.com. (online) Available at: http://www.tonyfahkry.com/how-to-overcome-challenges-and-setbacks/