Many clients have asked about how to keep moving forward in their lives when what’s appearing in life is crushingly challenging.
I know how this feels, and have experienced it countless times. The tips below will help you stay focused and energized, and keep you on your way to your future life visions, despite the bumps and pitfalls that emerge in the present situation.
Don’t Let What Appears in the Present Fool You
We often forget that what’s appearing in our lives today will not last. One thing is certain in life –change is a constant. What’s occurring in your life and work now is a confluence of many factors (your beliefs and patterns of behaving, the lessons our world and humanity need to learn, etc.). But your future will look very different if you embrace that possibility. For instance, if you’re struggling terribly with money now, this doesn’t necessarily mean you are doomed to battle with money your entire lifetime.
Begin now to see what’s happening today as information – evidence of what is working well, and what is not. Use this information to guide you to make some vital changes in your thinking and actions so that what you dream of can indeed become your reality.
For me, these times have led me to learn the hard way what it means to be a better communicator, marketer, and promoter of my own services, and to be a creator of useful products that are relevant to the changing times. I’ve always found it distasteful to “hawk my wares.” But there’s a vast difference between “hawking” and getting the word out widely so others know what you offer and do. I’m getting “hip to my trip” about being shy regarding promoting my services. I know now that I’ve got to get over it if I want to help others in a big way.
What habit do you need to let go of today that’s holding you back?
Appreciate What You Have While Being Excited for What is Coming
When we’re facing hardship or struggle, it’s very difficult to achieve a state of appreciation. But appreciating where you are is essential to bringing into your life more positive events and circumstances.
Appreciating where you are means you understand that in some critical ways you’ve signed up for these challenges — co-created them, one could say – for your own expansion. Not on a conscious level, but on a higher dimension. Embrace what your life is giving you as a way to grow into what you want more of.
Raging against where you are in life is like rolling a ball uphill over and over, and being angry that it keeps rolling back down at you. Either change how and where you roll the ball, or stop feeling resentful at what is (or better yet, do both)!
Take time each day to appreciate the good that you’ve created in your life thus far. More of it will surely come.
Don’t Listen to the Naysayers
When you’re feeling down about your tough times, you sometimes experience negative people who think they know best and more than you. These naysayers often say,”I told you so!” or “I knew that would fail,” or “What were you thinking?”
My best advice is to turn a deaf ear to the naysayers, and focus instead on those who are compassionate, encouraging, and uplifting to you. Seek out those who believe in you 3000%, who trust in your capabilities without reservation.
Sure, we sometimes need to hear difficult counsel, but make sure the advice you heed is from an empowering, positive, knowing source. Ignore advice that feels wrong, diminishing, or negative, or is based on someone else’s limitations or agenda.
Surround yourself instead with those who want you to be all you can be in life and work.
Ask for Help
Finally, in tough times, we need to ask for help. Let go of your need to be perfect, right, or invincible. Ask for assistance and support to get you through.
An encouraging friend, mentor, family member, or coach can be of great help when times are hard. He/she can help you see beyond what you’re experiencing, make sense of it in terms that are meaningful to you, and connect you to the realization that you’re not alone.
I’ve found too that the best kind of support comes from your “higher” self – the dimension of you that experiences life from a broader perspective than your ego-mind is capable of. You can access insight from your higher self by forging a relationship with it, connecting with your higher insight and knowledge by asking yourself questions each day, and listening for the answers.
When you get these answers, trust them, and act on them. Your higher self won’t steer you wrong. Check it out for yourself.
* * * * *
Tough times are rampant right now in our world. The question to ask is, “How may I use this trying situation to inform, uplift, and expand me as I continue on the path that compels me?”
Remember:
“You gain strength, courage, and confidence
by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
You Learn by Living, 1960
A few years ago when our business was going through a particularly bad time I came across not one, but two different books with the same message.
It seems to me this should be a part of every classroom discussion until we get it through our heads as children.
“When bad things enter your life – Welcome Them”. They present opportunities for growth that are unsurpassed in that you are forced to dig deeply within yourself and summon all your resources to resolve the difficulties. If we had no problems we would eventually stop using our brains at all.
Another blessing that came to me as a result of those two books was – now when problems occur I get excited rather than concerned and this mindset is conducive to creative thinking.
The ongoing problems of business is why so many people quit (rather than fail in) their businesses. It is important to see problems as hurdles that must be cleared rather than obstacles.