In today’s post, I share with you how to overcome obstacles and what to do when things get difficult. It’s all nice and easy to follow through with your plans and take action on days when you wake up motivated. Those days when you get up on time, the weather is beautiful, the coffee is perfect, your hair looks great, and everything is just fantastic.
It’s easy to feel motivated on days like those. Right? It’s easy to take action. But what about days when you don’t feel like it and you just want to watch Netflix? Or spend an hour scrolling on TikTok? All you want to do is fast-forward until it’s time to go to bed.
In this post, I talk about what to do when things get difficult and we’re just not in the mood to follow through with our plans. Let’s dive in.
1. Acknowledge the fact that obstacles and challenges are a part of life
Obstacles and challenges are a part of our relationships, personal goals, career, and other areas of our lives. Instead of giving up every time when an obstacle comes up, normalize it and expect ups and downs.
Let’s say you want to lose 15 pounds and you decided that you want to work out 4 times a week and cook at home instead of ordering UberEats every other day. In the beginning, you’re excited and you feel motivated to take action.
But then, a few weeks later, you get a promotion and work starts to take up more of your time. You start to lose the initial motivation for your weight loss goal and prioritize your work. Or maybe you suddenly need to spend more time with your family or you need to travel for work.
Or maybe you break up with your partner and you feel terrible and the last thing on your mind is working out and eating healthy. All the stress makes you want to choose comfort, buy some snacks, and spend 45 minutes re-watching your favorite Netflix show rather than doing an at-home workout.
Whatever the case may be, the new circumstance takes all of your focus and you forget about a goal that just a few weeks earlier made you feel excited and good about yourself.
You want to work on a certain goal, an obstacle comes up and you just don’t know how to deal with it. So you give up and you feel like a failure. Instead of staying stuck in that loop, normalize obstacles as a part of the process. Not as a cue to quit.
2. Reflect and gain awareness around what you usually do when obstacles show up
Write this question in your notes and journal on it: How do you usually deal with obstacles and challenges?
Having this awareness makes it easier to improve things in the future rather than repeat your previous patterns. This is why I always like to start with self-awareness. I encourage you to journal on this: What do you usually do when obstacles show up?
If the answer doesn’t come up right away, think about the last 2 or 3 times when obstacles showed up. Write down how that affected you and what you did about it. Notice if there are some common things you do when challenges come up.
Read next:
20+ Deep Thought-Provoking Journal Prompts for Goal-Setting
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3. Prepare for obstacles ahead of time
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
― Benjamin Franklin
Preparing for obstacles ahead of time is going to save you unnecessary stress and drama when your action plan or your to-do list faces challenges. Why? Because when you set a goal, you often plan as though everything will be easy, perfect, and effortless. But has it ever been all easy, perfect, and effortless?
One of my coaching clients decided on the action steps that she needed to take to achieve her goal. At first, everything seemed perfect. She had a goal she was excited about and the perfect plan.
But when I guided her through the process, which was all about preparing for obstacles ahead of time, she remembered an obstacle that in the past had always come up. Now that she expected that obstacle, she was able to better prepare her action plan and do what she could to overcome that obstacle if it showed up. She found a way to move through the obstacle rather than quit and fall off track when it comes up.
The usual pattern is, and I’m sure you’re familiar with this, when you encounter an obstacle without preparing for it, you feel overwhelmed. It’s easy to feel stressed and like you don’t have control anymore because something unexpected happened. The obstacle wasn’t a part of your perfect plan.
Oftentimes, when the obstacle comes up, we feel like we don’t have any control over it. And of course, often we don’t have control over the external circumstances, but you have all the control over how you’re going to deal with it.
Are you going to let the external circumstances limit you and hold you back? Or are you going to take back the control over how you deal with it and move through it?
What are you choosing? Are you choosing to stay stuck and feel powerless? Or are you focusing on what you can control and going after what you want?
By thinking ahead of time and preparing for obstacles, you will be able to overcome obstacles, know exactly what to do, and it won’t affect your desired result.
How good is that?
4. Weekly journal prompt to overcome obstacles
Next time, when you’re planning the week ahead or planning for a certain project or goal, ask yourself – What could prevent you from taking action on that?
Let’s say you want to go for a run next Sunday. Well, what if it rains? What if some other obstacle shows up?
Or you want to work on your side hustle on Friday morning. What if your pet makes a mess in the house and you need to spend 2 hours cleaning it?
Or you want to do a workout tomorrow. What if you don’t feel motivated and in the mood to work out when the time comes?
How are you going to make sure it doesn’t affect your desired results? How are you going to move through the obstacle instead of quitting?
5. Prepare for your feelings in advance
With this last example from the 4th point, you can see that it’s not just the external circumstances that hold us back. Oftentimes, it’s our lack of motivation or self-confidence that can sabotage us.
The action plan is not enough because what happens when limiting beliefs pop up? You need to create empowering beliefs ahead of time. Make sure you prepare for mindset blocks and disempowering emotions as well.
Being prepared for success doesn’t mean putting action steps in your calendar and hoping everything will go smoothly. Preparing for success has to include preparing for obstacles.
These obstacles can include your feelings. Maybe you’re not going to feel motivated and in the mood to get up and take action. Or you’re not going to feel confident and good enough to apply for a promotion. That’s why you need to prepare for mental and emotional obstacles, too.
Read next:
8 Things to Do When You Don’t Feel Good Enough
7 Tips to Overcome Your Fear of Failure
6. Overcome obstacles ahead of time
“So often, we pretend we’ve made a decision, when what we’ve really done is signed up to try until it gets too uncomfortable.”
― Jen Sincero
The next question to ask yourself when you make an action plan for your goal and prepare for obstacles is: What are you going to do to overcome that obstacle?
These last two journal prompts make a big difference once you start thinking about the inevitable challenges. Whatever goal you want to pursue, whatever result you desire, obstacles are inevitable.
And as I said, not just the obstacles and challenges that come up as external circumstances (weather conditions, rejection…), but also obstacles that come up in the form of your limiting beliefs.
What if you don’t feel motivated when the time comes to take action? What if you don’t feel self-confident enough when the time comes to have a difficult conversation?
Often, I see people focus on making their to-do list the night before and on organizing and scheduling in their calendars.
But it’s also necessary to plan for and prepare for obstacles. Too often, we are held back by a lack of motivation and the feelings we experience in the moment.
Everything is in order until it’s time to take action. Then we start postponing tasks, procrastinating, and pushing our goal lower on the list of priorities. Insecurities set in: fear of rejection, fear of failure, a focus on worst-case scenarios, and we just give up.
Setting yourself up for success also means addressing your limiting beliefs in advance. That way, when the time comes to take action, you’re prepared and there is less resistance towards taking action and following through with your plans.
Read next:
Overcoming Your Limiting Beliefs: 4 Steps to Set Yourself Free
How to Set Goals When You Don’t Know What You Want
Until the next time,
Ivana
Journaling is one of my all time self care practices lol to use when I’m feeling emotionally optimistic. Great post!
Great advice and reflection here. Everyone faces obstacles at some point! Thank you for sharing!
Totally agree with preparing yourself for obstacles! Planning ahead and having a course of action if something were to come up is so important! Great post 🙂
Definitely important to prepare for difficulties in life! Resilience doesn’t come from being stiff but from timely and proper self-care in the midst of hardships.
It’s so easy to become frustrated with everything happening in life. But thinking that’s normal, planning ahead, and journaling for my problems and obstacle has improved my life so much. Great article 🙂