Everyone has faced adversity. It’s impossible to live without facing adversity. Even the smartest and most capable of us eventually deal with pain, death, and adversity. As with any challenge, there are important ideas and strategies that make the road to success smoother and easier.
Learning to respond to life’s challenges successfully can enhance your most positive attributes. These attributes can then be used to deal with future challenges. Remember that the most successful people have successfully dealt with tremendous adversity.
Try these techniques to overcome adversity and get on with your life:
- Accept that adversity is a part of life. There’s adversity everywhere, and there’s nowhere to hide. Sometimes bad things just happen. There’s no way to avoid it. Accepting the situation is the first step to finding a way through it. Tell yourself that you’ll get through it and the situation will get back to normal.
- Focus on solutions. The first thing you’re likely to do when faced with adversity is worry. This is natural, but worrying never solved anything. Worry only lowers your ability to change the situation. When things aren’t going well, take it as a sign to get busy.
- Focus on what you can do to enhance the situation. Make a plan. What can you do right now to make a positive change?
- Focus on the present. Avoid focusing on the worst possible outcome or beating yourself up about the current challenge. It’s possible you made a mistake or misjudged the situation, but the adversity is happening right now, so keep your attention focused on the present.
- Set a goal. What outcome would you like to see and experience? Set a goal to make that desirable outcome happen as quickly as possible. Sometimes we scramble to make things better without thinking about the optimal outcome.
- Take the time to determine what you want. Maybe the situation can be even more desirable than it was prior to facing the adversity. Can you find a solution that prevents a repeat occurrence?
- Relax. Stress and worry don’t contribute to a positive outcome. Learning to relax in stressful situations is a skill that takes time to develop. Relaxing will allow you to both feel more comfortable and perform at your best. Too much stress is unhealthy and counterproductive. Stay busy working your plan and breathe. It will be over before you know it.
- Ask for and accept help. The world is full of people, and many of them would be happy to help. Avoid being too shy, proud, or embarrassed to ask for help. You’d be willing to help the people in your life, so give them the same opportunity. There’s no reason to struggle alone.
- Focus on improvement. Rather than consuming yourself with the thought of getting the adversity completely out of your life, focus on making regular progress in the right direction. You can be happy about your progress even if the situation hasn’t been completely resolved.
When faced with adversity, keep your focus on finding solutions. Having a goal and plan are key components of bringing your life back on course. Worry, stress, and fear will only lower your effectiveness and limit your ability to alter the situation. Everyone can learn to deal with adversity in a more skillful manner.
Remember that achieving bigger goals and enjoying a more fulfilling life require the ability to deal with adversity effectively. Resolve to confront adversity head on. Your ability to deal with adversity will grow with experience.
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