Goals, Mental Illness, Personal Growth, Reaching Out

Successful Leader’s Top Secrets to Overcoming Adversity

Whenever you struggle with life’s challenges it’s easy to feel like you are failing at life. Since everyone struggles with something or another it’s best to realize that challenges are just a part of life and you don’t have to struggle with them. The fact that a challenge exists doesn’t make you a failure. When challenges happen you can overcome them all by approaching them just like other successful people have. Keep the following tips from successful leaders in mind.

Dealing with Adversity and How It Takes Its Toll

  • Negativity is an adversity, and it is everywhere, from TV to gossipy co-workers. It can’t always be controlled, but it can be monitored and manipulated.
  • Definition of adversity: When a hardship, unexpected event or life transition occurs, and we are left to pick up the pieces of our life and readjust to the change. Face the change and make it just the next chapter in life.
  • Adversity is something everyone deals with; it can take a toll on our confidence, belief in ourselves, careers, relationships, and happiness.
  • Examples of adversity include divorce, the loss of a loved one, sickness, a learning or physical disability, job loss, and anything else you can think of that can negatively effect your outlook.

Focus on the Goal (Not the Hardship)

  • Turn over a new leaf—get “stuck” in positive ways of thinking rather than obsessively thinking about the negative hardship that has affected your life.
  • Make it a mission for yourself to overcome the adversity, conquer it and become a mentor or role model for everyone else facing the same hardship. When you’re thinking about how your decisions can help others you dwell on how to succeed and not on your adversity.
  • Focus on the good that facing the adversity has brought you: perhaps it brought you closer to family for support, caring friends, an opportunity to seek out resources and think outside of the box, a chance to start over single with no one to worry about but yourself, greater willpower and resilience, etc.

Make a List of Your Accomplishments (and Read It Daily)

  • Overcome adversity by writing lists—every morning, write down every accomplishment you’ve made. Re-read it several times throughout the day or right before going to bed at night.
  • Keep another list of your goals. How can you work through this hardship? Write down ideas you have about reaching each goal.
  • Create a vision board—include positive images of your goal, inspirational quotes, and old pictures that bring out feelings of happiness in you.
    but yourself, greater willpower and resilience, etc.

Remember Everything Passes—Including the Tough Stuff

  • Avoid thinking this hardship is etched in stone—it’s not, and it will pass.
  • Look forward to the future—everything you have the ability to accomplish, the things you want to see, the people you want to meet, the career you want to have.
  • Here’s an affirmation to use: “This moment is meant to teach me something important. When the lesson has been learned, the hardship will pass, and greater things are in store. I can’t wait to see what wonderful things will happen!”

Go with Your Gut

  • Go through the motions of this challenging time, and listen to yourself (forget everyone else).
  • What feels right as you go about your day, and what doesn’t feel right? Are you taking steps to improve your attitude, or are you surrounding yourself with people who pull you down?

Laugh about Something Every Day

  • Laugh once a day, and you’ll dilute some of the seriousness of your situation—laugh multiple times in a day, and you’ll heal quickly from emotional pain.
  • Pull out old photos from when you were young and crazy (and laugh at your appearance from the past, especially when you remember how at the time you thought you were looking good!).
  • Go through old journals, and see patterns of your thought evolution and positive changes that took place and will continue to take place.
  • Give thanks for all you’ve learned up to this point and all you will continue to learn—including what you’re learning right now in this very moment.

As you learn how to laugh about the harder moments of life and beat down those negative thoughts with powerful, positive ones, you will get through the rough patches with less and less effort and struggle. As you do, your life will sparkle and shine as you might have thought it never would. When it shines you’ll know why and be able to keep it shining no matter what the adversity!

Tags: