How to Handle Challenges
I want to talk about how to handle challenges. This past year has brought on so many challenges, in so many different forms for most of us. It has forced us to deal with some things head on that we may not have wanted to deal with. It has made us ask a lot of questions, many of which can be triggering in terms of our emotions and how we respond. It has also made a lot of people start to question where they are, where they are going, and what they want out of life. So, I want to give you four steps to help you in dealing with challenges, so they don’t completely derail you. We are going to experience challenges throughout life, that is inevitable. But the best thing we can do is deal with them head on and continue charging forward, stronger, and better because of them. I hope these four steps will help you in doing just that.
Number 1: Acknowledge it: I think it’s important to really see whatever your challenge, hurdle, or problem is for what it really is. It’s important to try not to be too emotional at this stage, but really try to see the problem for what it is. Don’t blow it out of proportion, but don’t minimize it to where you’re being naive and ignoring a big problem. Really try to acknowledge and see whatever the challenge is for what it is. Having a clear, honest and objective picture of what challenge you’re actually facing, is going to be the best first step to overcoming it and working through it. So acknowledge it, see it for what it is, first and foremost.
Number 2: Accept it. A lot of the time when we’re working through hard things, our instinct is to go into denial, to tell yourself it’s not really happening. If you do step 1 well and you really acknowledge it, and see the challenge for what it is, it will be much easier to accept it. It’s okay to feel when you’re going through something hard and it’s sad, or feels overwhelming or it makes you angry. It’s okay to feel that feeling. I think it’s important to feel it and to acknowledge the feeling that you’re having. It is okay, it is justified to acknowledge how you are responding internally to whatever this problem or this challenge is. So, acknowledge it, accept it, and feel it before you can then move on.
Number 3: Create a new plan. Once you’ve acknowledged the problem and accepted it for what it is, it’s not going anywhere. There’s not a magic wand or super hero coming to save you, it really is on you to find a path forward. Create a new plan, be solution oriented. The emotions that I mentioned before that are perfectly fine to feel, but you cannot be so consumed by those emotions that you can’t see clearly to move past it. You have to try to be as objective as possible and create a new plan. Maybe you don’t have to throw out the old plan, maybe it’s more of a pivot or detour, but stop and assess how you can get back on track and make a new plan, focused on a solution. Don’t dwell.
Number 4: Move Forward. Take action on your new plan without dwelling in those emotions. Every single day take a baby step. Even if it is just one small step per day, start there. Find some momentum by consistently taking one small step. If you can do a couple small steps every day to get you back on track, wonderful, but keep taking daily action to move forward so you can build momentum and get back on right track. Life if full of challenges, it’s full of hurdles, it’s full of things that we did not expect or plan for, and that is an opportunity to learn. It is an opportunity for us to dig deep and to find a way to overcome and be stronger and better for it. So move forward, take daily action, stick to the new plan that you created, and stay positive in the process. Don’t get pulled down into the negativity that challenges can present you. Focus on how the challenge has helped you to grow, how it has equipped you, what you’ve learned from it and how’s that going to propel you forward, because that’s what I really believe challenges do. They may slow us down or pull us back a little bit in the short term, but they’re really setting us up to propel forward.
I hope these four steps are helpful, as life is sure to throw us more challenges as time goes on. Keep these in mind, be encouraged that challenges are not there to get you down, but there to propel you forward.
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