Today, 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 you’re just not in the mood to follow through with your plans. Let’s dive in.
1) expect obstacles and challenges as 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 an obstacle comes up, normalize it and expect ups and downs.
Let’s say you want to lose 10 pounds and you decide that you want to work out four times a week and cook at home instead of ordering Uber Eats 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.
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) learn your patterns
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:
3 Signs Of Self-Sabotage: Are You Getting in Your Own Way?
3 Toxic Mindsets That Hold You Back (and How to Overcome Them)
3) prepare for obstacles ahead of time
“People who think, “Who does she think she is?” are the same people who don’t allow themselves to aim higher than their current level. Their opinion has nothing to do with your potential and everything to do with the limits they put on themselves.”
― Ivana Skoric, She’s Intense
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?
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 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?
Ask yourself: What are the potential obstacles that may come up? And prepare for them before they arise.
4) weekly check-in 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? Use these prompts not just while you’re setting goals, but as a weekly check-in to make sure you’re showing up and following through.
Read next:
22 Thought-Provoking Journal Prompts for New Goals and a Fresh Start
5 Life-Coaching Tools for Confidence: Build Self-Belief That Lasts
5) prepare for your feelings in advance
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—internal and external.
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:
Overcoming Your Limiting Beliefs: 4 Steps to Set Yourself Free
Choose Your Thoughts: How to Stop Spiraling and Rewire Your Mind
6) overcome obstacles ahead of time
“And if you want to do anything in your life, there comes a point where you’re done with explaining and defending yourself and your decisions. You let people think whatever they need to think, and you focus on your part of the equation. You focus on who you want to be and what you want to do.”
― Ivana Skoric, She’s Intense
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? How are you going to move through it so that it doesn’t hold you back?
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 confident or strong 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 nice and easy 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 to taking action and following through with your plans.
If you liked this post and want to further explore how to create a life you love without letting fears and obstacles get in the way, my book She’s Intense is for you. Over 209 pages, I guide you to uncover your unique path, make decisions independent of what others think, and never settle for less than what you truly want. Get it on Amazon.
Until 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 🙂