How To Turn Your Obstacles Into Opportunities
How To Turn Adversity Into Opportunity
‘Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.’ Leonardo Da Vinci
Life is filled with obstacles.
Experience has taught me that when we are pioneering towards a fresh dream, a new venture, or a heartfelt desire, there will always be obstacles.
Why is it that we are so often surprised by them? Why is that so many are derailed by the obvious? Why are we sidetracked? Why do we stop dead in our tracks? Why do we give up? Why do we agree with the naysayers and say, ‘I was a fool to think it possible’?
How Turn Your Obstacles Into Wildly Profitable Opportunities
If you have found yourself in that position, I have good news for you. While ever there is breath in your body, it is still never too late to pick up that dream again with fresh resolve and go again.
But there are a few important things that you must understand if you are ever going to fulfill the reason that you have been born.
- Obstacles Can’t Crush You
Obstacles may delay you, but they cannot crush you. They are the wolf that declares that he will huff and he will puff and blow your house down. Your brick house, which represents your dream, will unveil that the wolf’s threats are just that – a lot of hot air that will fail to stop the inevitable.
The only reason you will be crushed is if you start to believe his threats. Close your ears. Shut out your mind to such thoughts. Declare ‘I will not be defeated and I will not quit.’ Shout out loud that ‘Every obstacle that I come across will teach me a new lesson or a new skill that will position me for my next success.’
Approach each obstacle as your teacher and not as your opponent. If you approach your life as a student you will always be prepared to learn the lesson that obstacles teach. Ask yourself the question, ‘What can I learn from this?’ and nothing will phase you.
- Obstacles Lead To Stern Resolve
Something happens to you on the inside when people say that you can’t. I have experienced this feeling time and time again with each crazy new venture that I have undertaken throughout my life.
It takes a stern resolve to push through the pain barrier, the opposition, the disbelief, the questioning, the doubt, the fear, the lack of resources, and every obstacle that is standing between you and the fulfilment of your dream.
This is where you step up a gear into overdrive. This is where you get creative. This is where you get imaginative. This is where you get sharper. This is where you kick over from amateur to professional. This is where your light rises above the pack and you start to stand out above the crowd called mediocrity. This is where you step up from being an under achiever and are transformed into an over achiever.
Steel is implanted into your backbone. Your eyes are transfixed towards your goal, and your resolve moves from a state of instability into a state of stern resolve.
- Keep Fixed To Your Star
Sailors in ages past used the stars to guide them through all weathers upon the vast oceans that they sailed. Because of that they reached their destination.
- What is your dream?
- What is your goal?
- What is your life goal?
- For what purpose have you been born?
- What do you wish to be remembered for?
- What legacy do you wish to leave?
- What imprint do you wish to plant upon earth for all eternity?
- What do you wish to contribute?
- What is your star?
It must be something that is bigger than yourself.
I read recently that rich people who fail to share their wealth generally commit suicide or die a lonely death. So it is very clear that we must live for more than just our own personal gain and comfort.
What is your star?
What will empower you to face obstacles, to learn from them, and to move forever forward to your destination?
- Don’t Change Your Mind
Whenever an obstacle stands in your way it is so easy to convince yourself that it must have been a mistake. So you change your mind.
I am as guilty as the next person to have yielded to this throughout my life. But it is never too late to get back on track.
Once you know that obstacles cannot crush you, that it has led you to a stern resolve in your heart and mind – a knowledge that you know because you know what to do with your life – and you are fixed to your star, then don’t change you mind.
Stick with it. Improve. Learn. Grow. Go. Persist. Persevere. Never, never quit. Don’t give up. You can do it. You will make it.
Ask yourself this question. ‘How long am I willing to push ahead through very obstacle I face until I see victory?’ If your answer is ‘forever’, then what is an obstacle to do with such a commitment to success. It will bow its knee. It will yield. It will buckle under pressure applied by such a determined life.
Like the river that cut through the rock and formed the Grand Canyon, so too you will turn every obstacle into wondrous opportunities that will bring joy to not only you, but also to those who are impacted by your tenacity to fulfill the purpose for which you were born.
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