This is continued from the first set of Ideas for Overcoming Obstacles.
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Adjust Your Priorities
At times, we are unable to overcome certain obstacles because our priorities are simply out of order.
When you aren’t sure what you’re aiming at, it’s hard to make any real progress.
When you don’t have a clear sense of your priorities—what to do first, what’s more important—it’s hard to be effective.
Assess Your Obstacles
You will rarely overcome an obstacle unless you quickly figure out how it originated and weaseled its way into your life in the first place. With this in mind, ask yourself:
- What went wrong?
- What could have caused this?
- What must I do now?
The key, of course, is to learn from your experience. Then, you use that knowledge to formulate a better course of action.
List Possible Options
Sometimes, obstacles have a tendency to constrict us mentally, thereby limiting our perspective of the situation.
If you feel like you’re in a tight spot, you must quickly come to realize that solutions can only be found when we open our minds to possibilities and options that we hadn’t considered before.
To do this, simply sit down with a pen and paper and brainstorm over these questions:
- How can I overcome this obstacle?
- What options haven’t I considered?
The more options you have, the more opportunity you have to find a suitable answer to the problem you are facing. However, you must understand how to turn these options into opportunities.
Ask Effective Questions
The above two examples hopefully help highlight the power of questions and how asking effective questions can help you gather new and different perspectives about your life and circumstances.
Experiment in New Directions
Asking effective questions will help you gain new insights about the obstacles that are standing in your way.
Use gathered insights to try new things and move in new directions that you never considered before. It is, after all, the path less traveled that will make all the difference in the end. Choose to live life like a scientist and challenge yourself to experiment your way through your problems.
Accept and Acknowledge Circumstances
When confronted with an obstacle, the worst thing we can do is to deny that the problem exists.
When we deny that something exists we close ourselves off to solutions, answers, and opportunities that are waiting to be discovered. We must accept and acknowledge circumstances for what they are from an optimistic, solution orientated, yet very realistic, state of mind.
Think Critically and Creatively
Creative and critical thinking were built on the foundations of obstacles and solutions that people have dealt with throughout the course of human history. Without problems, there would be no need for creative or critical thought.
You must take the time to learn and use these two thinking skills to work through obstacles far more effectively.
It won’t be easy. (At least, not at first)
It takes a lot of work and effort to develop these skills. However, nurturing curiosity can certainly give you a head-start.
Take Small Steps
How do you eat an elephant?
By taking small steps you ensure that you do not get overwhelmed. To do this, break down what you need to do into small manageable chunks, then progressively work on one chunk at a time.