Facing Obstacles

"Most of our obstacles would melt away if, instead of cowering before them, we should make up our minds to walk boldly through them." - Orison Swett Marden

There are times in life when we are moving forward towards our goals and we encounter a wall. The wall might contain a locked door or potentially no door at all. Many times it may be similar to swirling sand and dust blocking your path.

Our vision becomes clouded and we become frightened that we may become lost. We fear losing the path we are upon and it is very likely that you may drift. Our obstacles come in many different forms and how we face them determines what happens to our goals.

Some will choose to hide inside where four walls might protect. The landscape outside changes from the blowing winds, but once these people leave those four walls, venturing outside, nothing looks familiar. Still others will close their eyes and march head long into the storm, not looking where they are going and losing their way completely.

How should we confront obstacles?

I have no one answer that will suffice but I can offer some tips. What follows comes from a short-lived blog by Shane Magee, an inspirational writer.

- If we can stay cheerful when confronted with a problem, that automatically reduces the size of the problem. It can be very difficult to resist the slide into despondency; we have to cultivate the attitude of a warrior, and stand firm and not let our negative thoughts rule us. We can gain strength by remembering the times when we were cheerful, and the energy and vibrancy that that cheerfulness gave us.

- Like any other positive quality, our determination can be cultivated and increased. When fear of an impending obstacle strikes the pit of your stomach, you can visualise breathing out this fear and breathing in determination and resolve. If it is the sheer magnitude of a task that is worrying you, break it down into smaller tasks and tell yourself to just focus on getting the first small task done.

- Inspiration is such an important factor in maintaining one's resolve. By reading stories, we know we are not alone and that within the human spirit lies the capacity to solve these problems. Try to surround yourself with as much inspiration in the form of books, music and people as possible. By the same token you can remove yourself from influences that are discouraging you from reaching your goal.

- We often increase obstacles with our own self-doubt. We should instead try and increase our faith in ourselves and our ability to surpass the object in front of us. When a doubting thought comes, we can ask ourselves whether this thought really has any basis in reality; most of the time it does not have any basis at all. Sometimes by even accomplishing some small preparatory tasks we can instill faith in ourselves for the bigger tasks to come.

There are many different ways to face obstacles in life that you will inevitably face. But a sign of encouragement that I recently saw had these words, "Problems are inevitable, misery is optional."

Choose a different way of confronting your problems...choose to live to overcome and not live in misery. The cloud will pass and leave you with a clear view of your goal.

Stay inspired my friends!