Life is difficult sometimes
Sometimes life is wonderful everything is going our way and everything we do is successful and other times in life things are difficult, we just can’t seem to figure something out or finish something. It’s okay for life to be like this, life isn’t supposed to be amazing and easy all the time. Although it can feel like the end of the world when something goes wrong, it’s not.
Setbacks
The definition of a setback is an interruption in progress. A setback could be as small as the top you wanted to wear to an event needs to be washed or as big as a job interview not going well. What you do after these setbacks is crucial, are you going to throw the towel in and give up or are you going to persevere through it. It all comes down to your mindset and how you approach the situation.
Identify your setback
Being able to identify your setback is the first step to overcoming difficulties that life throws at you. So ask yourself what is your setback? What do you have to overcome now? We are all different, we all react in our ways, we all approach the same situations differently so unfortunately there is no magic equation that can figure out what your setback is.
Once you have identified what your setback is I think it’s important to ask your self a few questions:
- What is the setback making you feel?
- Why is the setback making you feel this way?
This is making them feel like they are no good at planning, they need to improve in their job to earn more money and that they are out of control. They are feeling this way because their debt doesn’t appear to be going down any.
Plan
Once you have identified a what and a why it is much easier to put a plan in place. Whilst there are many things that you will not be able to control when it comes to a setback there are plenty of things that you can control.
To plan, I like to make a list or a mind-map of things that I can do to change and improve the situation. Choose simple words and short phrases in the list so that it doesn’t seem too overwhelming and complicated. Writing these ideas down on paper will give you a good indication of what you can do to change the situation.
After writing the list I like to prioritise the ideas in order of what will be the most effective or have the best outcome. This way I am able to see what I need to do first and create a plan for that task.
An example – The setback is someone is in debt
How to overcome debt…
- Write a budget plan
- Spend less
- Prioritise paying off debt first
- Complete a no spend challenge
Remember things change
Although some things may seem impossible we must remember that things change. We are able to control lots of things in our lives and it is important not to dwell on the things we can’t change. At some point everything must end including difficult stages in our lives, so we must keep a positive attitude and think of ways to change our setbacks into opportunities to grow and better ourselves.
