Why avoiding pain might be holding you back and how learning to push through will set you up for success… 

I’m a teacher by profession and, one of the most disturbing trends I have observed among students today is their aversion to attempting or pushing through anything that might appear remotely difficult or challenging. On an almost daily basis I would get call outs (as the Behavior support teacher) to attend children who had run out of the classroom…

Why?

“…because I didn’t want to do the work…” or  “it was too hard so I didn’t want to try it…”.

All too often I will ask; “Did you look at it? Did you have a go? Did you ask for help?” and the answer is almost always the same; “No! I just know it’ll be hard so I’m not going to try…”

Life is challenging. Period! To achieve anything always requires a level of pain... Click To Tweet

No, I don’t blame the children, I believe children are a product of the environment they are raised in. Sadly we have school systems and parents that seem totally committed to helping children avoid all pain or discomfort at any cost. Tragically though, children raised in this way frequently turn into adults that are equally unwilling to do the work required to achieve their dreams or be the best they could possibly be.

The simple fact of life is; life is challenging. Period! To achieve anything in life always requires a level of pain, discomfort and adversity while you’re developing the expertise to reach your goal. Just ask any athlete, musician or academic who is at the top of their game how much “work”, “effort” and “determination” had to go into getting them to the top.

The expert in anything was once a beginner - Helen Hayes Click To Tweet

If you have dreams and goals to achieve beyond your present place in life then it’s going to take some persistence to push through the pain of learning. It’s not a question of if you will experience adversity, it’s how you face it that will determine your success in the end.

5 tips for overcoming achieving through adversity:

1. Know where you are heading.

I don't care how much power, brilliance or energy you have, if you don't harness it and focus it on a specific target, and hold it there you're never going to accomplish as much as your ability warrants. ~Zig Ziglar Click To Tweet

Often the biggest blocker to pushing through the pain of learning is first knowing where you’re heading and taking the first step. Unless you have somewhere to aim then understanding the purpose and point of your challenges will be lost.

What sort of person do you want to become? What do you want to achieve? Hold that in your mind when the challenge of getting there becomes too much.

2. Take the first step                                                         

A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Click To Tweet

Often the fear of failure can prevent us from ever taking the first step. Find one task you can do to move you forward towards your goal. Never starting is always worse than having a go and failing.

Don’t try do it all in a day. Just take one step closer, then another, then another…. soon your stride will become more confident if you just keep putting one foot in front of the other.

3. You don’t have to like it, you just have to do it!

I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.' -Muhammad Ali Click To Tweet

It’s the daily grind, personal discipline, practice and time spent in repetitious training that takes you forward. You don’t have to like it, but to achieve, you have to learn how to stay committed to it. I’m not a morning person but I realized that to move to the next level in my development I had to become one. So every morning when that alarm goes off at 4:45am, I remind myself why I’m doing it and what the reward will be at the other end. I also give myself a small reward for getting out of bed each day; I make myself a cup of chai.

Keep your goal in focus, remind yourself of the reward at the other end of the pain and give your self a small achievable reward for turning up each day. Very quickly it will become habit and you will start doing it with out a thought.

Check out this video: The life of an Entrepreneur in 90 seconds. It illustrates this point well.

4. Learn from your mistakes.

One of the secrets of life is to make stepping stones out of stumbling blocks. Jack Penn Click To Tweet

Set-backs, losses, and disappointments are a given in any endeavour. They can either become a tombstone and cause you to give up or your can learn, regroup and keep going. Those who learn from their setbacks almost always come through stronger than before. Life is learning and growth is pain.

3 simple questions that can help you process and learn from setbacks are:

• What went wrong? Stop doing it
• What did I do well? Keep doing it
• What could make it better next time? Try something new

5. Be the last one standing.

Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go. -William Feather Click To Tweet

Too often people give up on their dreams just before they have a break through. It’s frequently the case that those who succeed weren’t better than the others they started with, they just hung in long after everyone else quit.

Yes, you need to know when to quit sometimes, but it is equally important to know when to keep going. Find where your Passion, Skill, Income and the Needs of Others align. It is there you will find you purpose. Stay in that zone and keep going. If the activity takes you out of that zone, re-adjust. If you’ve just hit a rough spot but you’re still in your sweet spot, don’t quit!

Your Turn:

1. Share your story or tips for overcoming adversity in the comments below
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Thanks for reading, I look forward to reading your replies.

Need Help? If you’d like help to clarify your direct and map out a plan to reach your goals, book in a FREE coaching session with me. I’d love to help you get on your path to success.

If you would like to learn more about effectively growing in your leadership, why not check out our FREE Goal setting guide. See below for details.

https://leadcommunicategrow.com/free-goal-setting-guide/

5 Steps to Set Goals that Work