I’ve been fortunate to have a great deal of success in my life, but there’s been a lot of adversity too. We all have times in our lives where we are blindsided by something being thrown at us we didn’t expect. There are some go-to strategies that I have to help me overcome obstacles that come my way that I wanted to share in hopes that they might help you too.
I’ve shared numerous stories where I’ve had to overcome obstacles throughout my life. One, for example, is when I was backpacking through Europe and I ended up sleeping on the floor of the Amsterdam train station. Back then, the train station was a little scary of an environment and I definitely stood out as someone who didn’t belong there amongst the others. I honestly didn’t know if I would make it through the night and had to make friends with people that I never thought I would make friends with to just get through the night as I was surrounded by people who were definitely up to no good. These people saw me as a target.
Another time was when I had a great 3 years traveling around from country to country on a shoestring budget with a backpack most of the time and finding whatever job I needed to get to help me get by. I had made some amazing relationships along the way and had a girlfriend at the time. However, when I was living in Sweden, we broke up and I was completely heartbroken, broke and had to come back to the United States and start from scratch. It was terrifying to do it, but I found my way.
There’s major adversity that we all face at one time or another. There are three things that I look at when I know that I’m facing adversity and they’re three things that I can do consistently to make sure that I am set up as best as possible for growth and have some kind of springboard.
Here are the 3 go to strategies:
Make sure your mind is right
There’s so much information out there these days that actually can scare us and hold us back. What ends up happening is that we end up in a place where our mind is thinking about all the stuff going on around us in a negative way. Even when we watch TV, there’s so much stuff that we watch that’s really overdramatized and that can actually affect us. So the first thing I look at when things are going wrong is what am I feeding my mind. Am I watching things that give me anxiety or scare me? Am I surrounding myself with people who say or do things that make me feel bad or any negative emotion like fear, anxiety or depression etc. Any information we take in can have an effect on us. If I am in a place where there’s going to be some craziness going on or big changes, the first thing I need to do is make sure that I’m feeding myself information that’s going to make me believe that this is for the best and will create change that will ultimately help me get through. For example, I might watch a video from an inspirational speaker or an uplifting movie, which can help to give me inspiration and hope. If we feed ourselves things that make us feel we can’t do something or maybe the world is against us, then we will end up feeling that way. Sometimes we are feeling this way and then have people around us feeling the same way and when we are trying to do something beyond where we are, those people are going to hold us back. Surround yourself with lots of possibilities so this way it comes into your mind that it is possible to move forward and make a better life for yourself and you can overcome any obstacles that might come your way.
Feed your spirit
When you feed your spirit, that can be through prayer or meditation etc. You can ask for whatever you want. Don’t just wait until things go wrong, go ahead and ask. But, don’t just ask and move on. You have to listen as when you’re putting out those prayers, information is going to come back to you and tell you what your next step is. So make sure your prayer and what you’re asking for is very clear and specific in what you want. Don’t just say “I want money”, but say how much. Don’t say “I need help”, be specific with what you need help with. If you start doing that and ask for specific needs or questions, and then stop and listen (even had a notepad handy), you’ll start to receive answers. This takes some practice, but if you spend the time doing it, you’re actually going to feed your spirit because you’ll start to have understandings and revelations about yourself and even how the world works. You’ll understand that you’re not a victim, but really in control of anything that you want. Be prepared that life will throw curveballs your way but it’s often just to put you in another path better for you. Obstacles are a chance for us to grow and evolve. The more you practice this, the more you will get results.
Take care of your body
For me, if I’m not healthy, my mind isn’t going to function as well as it should, I won’t have the energy to meditate, think clearly or take the actions I need to take. Make sure that you’re taking the best care of your body that you can. That doesn’t mean you can’t go out with friends or celebrate and indulge at times. You can do those things that are an exception, but it can’t be something you do regularly. You have to enjoy your life, of course. Look to eat things that are healthy, but it doesn’t have to be a drastic change. Your life depends on it. This goes for food, information, exercise etc. Think of everything that you take in as consumption and you’re going to get out what you put in. Keeping your body healthy will give you a lot more energy to do the things you need to do.
Those are three takeaways that I’ve learned. When I was in the train station in Amsterdam, I had to make sure I was resourceful. I sat there and thought about what was going through my mind and when I was in fear from all these strangers standing above me realizing things could get really bad, I stopped and thought about what I was feeling. I realized there was no reason for them to attack me and decided to think positive thoughts and then all of a sudden, one of them started talking to me and I ended up buddying up with him. Then others started to talk to us and it’s because I got my mind and my thoughts right and prayed and listened for what I needed to do next, even at that moment, which helped me get through it.
Make sure you’re constantly feeding yourself the right foods, information and feed your spirit and soul because you’ll get so much more out of life. I hope this helps you in your journey and please don’t hesitate to ask any questions you might have in the comment section below and I’ll do my best to answer and help.
Feel free to check out the tribe at Evolved Life for tricks on how to manifest the ultimate life.
