How To Make Challenges Work For You

“Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional.” - Roger Crawford

Here are the 4 ways to overcome the challenges in life:

1) Recognise and find peace in the fact that challenges are a part of everyone’s life. From the outside, it may look like that friend or neighbour has the perfect life: a loving family, wealth and time galore to do things for herself and travel, and an accomplished life. Take it with a pinch of salt. Really. The friend/neighbour probably worked her butt off to get where she is. Made a lot of sacrifices that she never talks about. Has friend/family feuds just like everyone else. Some folks get a thrill out of making it all sound effortless. It rarely is.

2) Reach out. You don’t have to go at it alone. Talk to a family member or friend, or even a counsellor, who you think can be a good sounding board and can advise you on how to go about making things better.

3) Create an action plan or a goal sheet. It can help you stay focussed on the really important things, even when the challenging situation has passed. You may think enough has already been said about the necessity of having a plan or clear cut goals. But having a plan with goals is such a simple yet effective way to facilitate personal and professional success that it can’t be repeated often enough. Write down what you want from your life. Create a few short-term and long-term goals. Then set about thinking of ways to achieve them.

4) With our without a challenging situation in your life, it helps to focus on your own life. It can be very tempting and very easy to get sucked into the drama of someone else’s life. It can give you the (false) illusion that your own life is perfect. Resist the temptation to go around criticizing others, feeling a vicarious thrill through the mistakes of others. Focus on your own life and you’ll probably find plenty of room for improvement.