Introduction

There are difficulties in life.

Life can amaze at one moment then turn into a nightmare we wonder ”Where did it all go wrong?” ”Did I do something wrong?”. We even wish that we would wake up from this terrible nightmare.

During awful times, we shouldn’t take things too personally. Just know that it is just a cycle of life to have difficulties and everyone else goes through the same cycle.

(Tough times don’t last, but tough people do)

It’s important to know that tough times separate greatness from mediocre. The ones able to push through tough times grow stronger. Plus, you must navigate through these tough times if you want to achieve your goals.

(The bigger the goals, the more hardships you will face)

So, no matter the obstacles that life throws at you keep pushing through it. Keep making progress towards that goal that you are trying to achieve. Always stay focused on what you want in life and keep track of your progress, and it will keep your spirits high.

(If your low now is higher than the lows before then you are making progress)

If you want to live a fulfilling life, fulfill your goals no matter what.

(Just because you never heard or seen that it has done before doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist)

Are you going through a tough time now?

Well, GOOD NEWS! In this article, we will look at:

• 5 Strategies That You Can Implement Right Now To Help With Hard Times.

• Exploring 7 common Obstacles That Stop You From Achieving Your Goal
• How To Navigate Through These 7 Obstacles

5 Strategies to Overcome Hardships

1. Make A List Of Your Wants and Turning Them to Goals

The best way to create your goal is to list down what you want in life first.

Write 20 wants and it could be anything, for example,

1. I want a bigger house
2. I want …

After you’re done with your list, convert them into goals. You’ll realize that it relates some of your wants to one another.

Here’s an example,

Wants:

1. I want to have a ripped body
2. I want to be stronger

Goals:

1. My goal is to lose 100 pounds this year.

The next thing you need to do is to create a plan around it,

Example, if your goal is to lose 100 pounds this year then,

Plan:

1. Sign up for a gym membership or hire a personal trainer and hit the gym at least 3 times a week throughout the year.

The reason having goals are important is that it gives you a direction you can work towards. If you lack direction, there is a higher chance that life will decide that direction for you.

Without a direction, during tough times you won’t be able to keep pushing forward because there is no direction to go to. So, you will feel more powerless and will give up during tough times.

2. Make Sure That Your Goals Are Clear

It is important to list clear goals and plans and not vague ones.

What do I mean by listing clear goals and plans?

Here is an example,

Goals:

Instead of saying ”My goal is to be richer”.

A more clear goal would be ”My goal is to earn $5,000 a month”.

Plan:

Instead of saying ” Learn a new skill that has the potential to earn more”

A logical plan would be:

1. Research on high paying skills/jobs (able to earn $5,000/month)
2. Save 10% of my income every month to learn that new skill
3. Then look for a good academy or a course that teaches ”whatever it is you trying to learn”
4. Sign up for it
5. Invest 2-3 hours of your time each day after work to practice what you’ve learned
6. Until you earn $5,000/month

You want a clear goal and plan to see if you are making progress or not. Also, in my experience, it won’t always be straightforward. It’s important to adjust your plan during the journey.

Example,

Maybe you cannot save 10% of your income a month for whatever logical reason, So instead of saving 10% of your income a month. Look for an alternative. Get a part-time job over the weekend.

3. Incorporate Your Goals Into Your Daily Routine

Using the previous example of ”Losing 50 Pounds This Year”

Incorporating that into your daily routine would be,

”Going to the gym every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday at 6 pm” and ”Every Sunday going grocery shopping to stock up on healthy food at 3 pm”.

You can do this by setting an alarm on your phone as a reminder.

Incorporating your goals to your daily routine would help in reducing the stress. The reason is that you will get used to it and it becomes something you do on autopilot.

Doing this will help during rough times because you can ignore all the noises and still be able to make progress.

4. Practice Positive Self-Talk

Positive self-talk is helpful during tough times because it helps with keeping your spirit up. Know that life does not discriminate whether you are feeling down, or up it will hit you.

Since life, don’t discriminate might as well have a more positive outlook on it.

My personal examples,

Problem: Family financial problem

Positive self-talk: ”I’m the chosen one, I will be the first to be wealthy in my family” or ”If I go through these hardships I’ll be stronger, braver than before”

or ”I’ve been sitting in my comfort zone for too long that I stopped growing, this challenge gives me a reason to break free and make financial progress in my life”.

General positive self-talk examples,

”I’ve been here before, this is nothing but a speed bump to me”, ”The pain now is better than the pain of regret if I don’t make progress”, ”This problem right here is nothing but a process of greatness.”

5. Measure Your Progress

It is important to measure your progress based on your plans and goals. Don’t just look into the success but also look into the failures as progress.

Remember, progress often disguises itself as a failure. Compare not only your highs but also your lows, if your lows are higher than before it means that you are making progress.

You want to reflect and think about what you have accomplished this week, day, month, and year.

Let’s say your goal is to get a job by the end of the month. By the end of the month, you are still unemployed. However, throughout the month you’ve made 50 phone calls and landed 10 interviews.

If you don’t achieve your goals, it does not mean that you are not making progress. Recognize that you are putting effort into reaching that goal.

By recognizing your efforts, you will reinforce your actions. Giving you the strength to keep pushing forward. Doesn’t matter if you do not achieve your goal during a set timeframe. As you can always renew that timeframe.

There is no such thing as an unrealistic goal, but there is such a thing as an unrealistic time frame.

So keep moving towards your goals. Regardless of all the obstacles life throws at you. Apply all these strategies here and I promise you it will be an enormous help for you in accomplishing what you want in life.

Keep reading to learn about the most common obstacles that you will face and how to overcome them.

7 Common Obstacles That Stops You From Achieving Your Goals

In the previous section of this article, we learned about strategies that will help you overcome hardships. The things you learn in this section are crucial in life. As obstacles are a common occurrence in life and they are unavoidable.

In this section, you will discover some of the most common obstacles that you will face. It is crucial to know these obstacles so you can prepare for them. If you’re not prepared, you are setting yourself up for failure.

Having goals will give you the direction you need to go to achieve what you want. Knowing the obstacles will prepare you for what’s to come and minimize the damage it will do.

Also, know that there will be times when no matter how hard you try obstacles will get in your way regardless of whether you like it. A lot of these obstacles lie within ourselves.

With that being said, here are 7 common obstacles that will block you from your goals:

1. Staying In Our Comfort Zone

A lot of times when setting a goal and a plan, we cannot think outside of the box. These can devastate you because we don’t know what we don’t know.

What I’m trying to say here is that when we come up with a goal/plan is within our comfort zone. We cannot see why it didn’t work.

2. Having Negative Thoughts

Everything starts from within. If we look at ourselves as failures, then it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. The scary thing about negative thoughts is that a lot of times we don’t even realize that we’re thinking.

3. Lack Of Self-Esteem

Lack of self–esteem is something that is an enormous problem in this digital age. I say this because people opt to feel good about themselves through social media instead of addressing the problem.

Without self–esteem, we cannot take the necessary steps to achieve our goal. We will feel overwhelmed and too afraid to take even one step forward.

4. Lack Of Focus

Without focus, we get distracted. Distractions will make our journey to greatness longer than it should be.

The worst-case scenario, it will make us ignore the goals we set to achieve.

5. Lazy To Put In Effort

The road to greatness takes a lot of effort. Just by doing quick research on anyone who has achieved greatness. We find that they put in a lot of effort to get to where they are now.

And if you think it will be easy, then you are wrong.

6. Lack Of Time Management

If we lack time management, we waste time on unimportant things. Then blame our failure on ”not having enough time”.

It’s not that you don’t have enough time. In most cases, you lack time management.

7. Vague Aspiration

When your aspirations are uncertain, then your goals will be uncertain. If you don’t know where you want to go, then anywhere will be okay, which will prevent any progress.

Navigating Through The 7 Common Obstacles

In the previous section, we went through the 7 common obstacles of goal achievement. In this section, we will look at ways to overcome them, to prepare you for when they get in your way.

1. Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone

How can we do that?

There are 2 ways to do this.

First,

• Draw a picture of your goal
• Make a storyboard of your plan of action
• Create a vision board to show your pathway to success
• Visualize how the end goal looks like

By doing all these, we keep our creativity flowing and make our minds wander outside of what we already know.

The second method is more effective.

Surround yourself with like-minded people or people who are experts in their field.

As an example, if you are trying to be wealthy. The last thing you want to do is ask yourself, friends, or your family how to be wealthy. Instead, get out of your comfort zone (your circle of friends), swallow your pride, and reach out to wealthy people to learn from them.

Remember, if you don’t ask, you don’t get it.

2. Be Mindful Of Your Thoughts

We must first accept that negative thoughts are problems. Then be mindful of our thoughts, so we are more aware of these negative thoughts.

As soon as your negative thinking takes over. You want to stop thinking about them and replace them with positive thoughts. You can also read on or listen to positive affirmations every morning.

Tip: Practice meditation and it will help with your mindfulness (Take a meditation course or join a meditation class)

3. Take Action On Your Goals

The only way to feel more confident in doing something is through repetition. So, the more you take action, the more you’ll enhance your self–esteem. Try forcing yourself into taking the first step.

The second, third, fourth, etc steps will be easier as you keep taking action.

Move forward, even in times of fear and doubt. Remind yourself why you are doing it. Is it for more money? A better life for your family? Know that these are the steps to greatness.

Also, look into your past achievements, use it as a reminder that you can do it.

4. Learn To Commit Yourself

Remove external and internal distractions.

Example of removing external distractions

• Having a room just for work
• Having a separate laptop and phone for work

Internal distractions are harder to deal with. It distracts your thoughts. (having thoughts on something else).

A way to deal with internal distractions is to practice mindfulness. Again, through the practice of meditation where you learn how to redirect your thoughts.

5. Motivate Yourself

First, look for a role model, someone you want to be. Look into the effort he/she has to use that as fuel to assist you.

Other ways of getting motivated are through watching inspirational movies or motivational videos on YouTube. Or just anything that inspires you.

6. Schedule Your Time

You want to keep track of your time. In this way, you won’t have any time wasted on unnecessary things. Have a daily time table where you keep track of your time hourly or every 30 minutes (whatever works for you).

Example,

• 10:00 pm – Sleep
• 5:00 am – Wake Up
• 5:30 am – Meditate

What you want to do, set aside time in a day, week, or month for your goals.

Also, inform your family members that during a certain time, you’re focused on your goals. So everyone is in the same understanding.

7. Clarify Your Aspiration

List your aspirations down (Look at the ”5 strategies section” of this article on how to list your goals).

Stick your goals everywhere that are accessible. This way it will remind you daily.

Example,

• Worktable
• Bathroom mirror
• Phone wallpaper

There are always obstacles that will stop us from achieving our goals. However, if we know the reason for those obstacles, we can develop solutions for them.

These are strategies you can use when facing these 7 common obstacles. I hope it will serve you well, as it did for me.

Watch out for our next article, which will be about fear and how we can deal with them. In this article, you’ll learn that when you deal with fear life becomes limitless.

Today’s Action Plan:

Here’s the action plan you need today.

Step 1: Notice the things you say to yourself today and list them down.

Step 2: Notice, negative self-talk, and how it influences your results and attitude. ‘It is helpful?”, ”How does it affect your ability to overcome obstacles?”

Step 3: Pick 3 common obstacles from the ”7 common obstacles section” of this article.

Step 4: List examples in your life where you are facing these obstacles.

Step 5: Think about how you can use the strategies or tools in the ”Navigating section” of this article to overcome those obstacles?

Let’s hear from you!

What actions have you taken to overcome obstacles?