Tag: Challenges

Handling Life’s Challenges

Posted on by jabittan
Another benefit of the rigorous self awareness that Colin Wright lays out in his book Considerations is a sense of preparedness which builds our self confidence as we face hurdles along our journey through life.  “If you’r healthy, strong, knowledgeable, sociable, and capable of coping with discomfort, there’s little you can’t handle”  the author writes.  What Wright is explaining in this quote is that we can build our confidence through self awareness which will help us avoid becoming overwhelmed and filled with fear when we face challenges.  What is required is the ability to profoundly understand ourselves and an ability to view situations from multiple perspectives to fully understand the scope of the situation we face.  Without developing these practices then the hard work we apply to our obstacles is not as effective or efficient as it could be for us to derive a real benefit.

 

Wright’s quote shows that taking self awareness and combining it with hard work and a willingness to be a  uncomfortable creates a resilient mindset. Gaining a deeper understanding of our skills and weaknesses helps us see the best ways to approach challenges or areas where we need to grow. This can help us anticipate ways in which we plan to maneuver through life when the going gets tough.  We can develop a better mindset for our day to day life through our reflection, and this mindset can help us better prepare for our challenges.

 

Wright continues, “Why would you worry about something you know you can handle if you need to?”  The final part of his quote shows how our self awareness practice and the increased confidence that comes with it help us face our challenges in a better light. Rather than worrying all day about hard work and obstacles, we prepare ourselves for them with the understanding that we can overcome anything because we have prepared ourselves and know our strengths and weaknesses.

A Full Life: Challenges, Failures, and Successes

Posted on by jabittan
Writing about facing life’s challenges and accepting failure Colin Wright in his book Act Accordingly states, “Living life to the fullest is not about winning every time and avoiding the aspects of life that prove too onerous.  Its about unabashedly facing challenges, failures, and yes, even successes with a smile, moving ever-forward toward a more ideal lifestyle and a better version of yourself.” This quote addresses progress and maximizing our life by not shying away and avoiding the difficult parts of life that we think we may not be ready for or that we may want to avoid because we know they require a lot of hard work.  Achieving goals and building connections and relationships with others lead to a more fulfilling and happy life, but often times it is a lot of work to reach our goals or put ourselves in situations where we meet new people.

 

In my life I have struggled with the idea of moving toward goals and ideas that I know will require a lot of work and effort.  It is hard to find extra time to put in the work that is required to be engaged in extra projects that help build meaning in our lives.  For me, there have been many times where I have feared the hard work required to overcome a challenge or work toward a goal, and I have instead moved in different directions. I first recognized this in college when looking at what majors I would chose, and it has continued to haunt me in smaller decisions and ideas ever since.  What Wright would suggest for me is that I do not focus so much on the outcome or how challenging it will be to reach the point I am shooting for, but understand that regardless of whether I succeed or fail, the important thing is that I am engaging.  Wright would tell me that in order to grow I need to recognize challenges and understand the difficulties associated with them, and move towards them with a strong desire to perform well. His message is a bit trite as we tell ourselves that not everyone will win every time, but actually applying that and accepting it in our own lives is important if we want to accept that we won’t always be ready to perfectly handle all of our challenges.

 

What Wright explains in his chapter about failure is that it is never permanent.  We hit roadblocks and challenges that we are not always ready for.  We should not expect that we are always going to be able to handle every situation we face, but by putting ourselves out in the world and accepting the hard work instead of running away from it, we will build more skills through experience.  These skills which may develop from failure will allow us to make better decisions in the future. It will be challenging but by not allowing ourselves to quit we can learn and move forward as a better version of ourselves.

Accepting that Life is not Easy

Posted on by jabittan

This quote from Allison Vesterfelt’s friend and companion on her 50 state road trip in her book Packing Light, really helps me understand the difficulties we have in our life. “I think sometimes when things get hard, too many of us assume we’re moving in the wrong direction … Like if we’re doing life right, it’s supposed to be easy.” The quote helps me see that my ideas of success are often out of touch with reality. Reaching a level of success financially or in a career will not mean that things are suddenly easy for me. I will still feel insecurities about how hard I must work or about not having everything I may want and desire.  At the same time, becoming successful does not mean that other parts of my life will fall into place and become easy. Financial success does not translate into a happy home life, and a successful relationship also may not reach a point where everything feels easy.  By remembering Vesterfelt’s quote, I am able to accept the challenges that come with success, and I am better able to judge my journey when I hit rough patches.  Rather than running away from challenges to look for success and “easy” someplace else, this quote helps me see the value in persevering and growing from the difficulties.