FOOD FOR THOUGHT – DEAL WITH THE OBSTACLES
We are confronted with obstacles every day. Sometimes they can be predicted, other times they cannot.
Being confronted with an obstacle is much more different than being confronted with a failure. While avoiding failure prevents action, avoiding obstacles may still bring success.
Since obstacles differ from failure, they require a totally different outlook. The following steps will help:
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- The Only Real Obstacle to Accomplishing Anything is Yourself
The only real obstacle that prevents you from success is your own lack of belief in your ability to succeed. Every other obstacle that manifests itself can easily be hurdled if you believe in yourself, and is often an opportunity for growth.
If you don’t believe you can accomplish something, there is NO way you are going to do it.
Thus, having faith in yourself when confronting an obstacle is the single best way to deal with any hurdle.
- Don’t Allow an Obstacle to Stop You
Like failure, it is inevitable that you will face obstacles during your entrepreneurial career.
Additionally, like fear of failure, fear of obstacles can be paralyzing. Don’t let difficulties stop your progress towards success. Work on a way to overcome roadblocks rather than feeling as if an obstruction is unpassable.
This might require you to be more creative or think more positively. However, remember that if you want something badly enough, you’ll find a way to make it happen.
- An Obstacle is an Essential Hurdle to Reach Success
Instead of viewing an obstacle as a roadblock that prevents you from moving forward, view any difficulty as an essential hurdle you must overcome to reach success.
Try to view obstacles in a more positive light. While they may seem inconvenient, obstacles are present to ensure your company has the mettle to plow through and succeed against your competitors.
- Expect Obstacles and Prepare for Them
Taking the initiative to prepare for obstacles is a great chance for your business to hone its predictive capabilities. This also ensures clients are served without a disruption of your service.
Expecting obstacles will allow you to reduce costs and maintain a high level of efficiency. You’ll adapt or react more quickly to a difficulty, and be able to confront it using significantly less resources.
Being able to successfully predict and preempt any obstacles that stand in your way will also make you a more competitive participant in your industry.
- Confronting Obstacles Isn’t Easy
Never take an obstacle lightly. Underestimating the difficulty of clearing a roadblock can lead to a problem becoming that much more threatening.
When presented with an obstacle, always be completely ready to tackle it and anticipate additional complications.
- Obstacles are Great Learning Experiences
Like failure, obstacles are great learning experiences. Facing different problems can teach you the best ways to solve them. You’ll also learn if the same difficulties will repeat themselves in the future.
Facing various difficulties will allow you to better understand the types of problems you will face in your business or industry. This will also better equip you to confront them in the future without overusing your resources.
- Use Obstacles to Your Advantage
When resisting or confronting obstacles, you are using resources to clear roadblocks so they no longer pose a threat to you. While this strategy can be effective, sometimes using the obstacle to your advantage can be an even more powerful technique.
Consider using a difficulty to your advantage by developing systems that will make the presence of the obstacle profitable.
Consider the current economy. Business are struggling with a lack of customer spending, being unable to hire due to lower revenues, larger publicly held companies have to worry about falling stock prices and companies with financial portfolios have to worry about devaluing assets.
Instead of struggling to survive, certain companies produce products that naturally sell better during economic downturns. They can develop systems that complement recessionary periods and offer services that are more useful to consumers during a darker economic environment.
We see this already: car dealerships are resorting to selling more and more used cars and offering lower financing rates. We also see random businesses offering to buy gold.
These types of practices aren’t resisting the recession but using the climate as an opportunity to profit from it.
- Avoiding Obstacles Can be a Good Thing
Failure is something that cannot be avoided.
Obstacles on the other hand, can be beneficial to experience, but can also be beneficial if avoided. Avoiding an obstacle does not mean you are stopping growth or avoiding pursuing a business.
Avoiding an obstacle means you are creating a system or strategy to avoid problems or obstructions that may stand in your way to success.
Thus, trying to avoid failure will paralyze you, while trying to avoid obstacles will most likely save you money.
In conclusion, I’ll like to quote Victor Afolabi(Admiral): “if I had the power I wouldn’t see the future but I’d rather go to change the past. Every step we take changes the future and every move we made defines them! Make each moment count, spend every second positively. The sky is our walkway”
