The Power Of Positive Thinking When Tackling New Challenges

We are all faced with challenges in our lives and our success at meeting those challenges head on lies much in our attitudes towards them.

Facing up to Change

Life is an evolutionary process. Nothing stays the same and this affects every area of our lives both personal and professional. The ‘problem’ with change (if you are the type of person who perceives it as a problem that is) is that it can create fear that tends to be negative and destructive.

When faced with a challenge, it’s often the fear of the ‘unknown’ that causes some people to get stressed out by the challenge itself and they start to feel inadequate and not in the least prepared to conquer whatever it is they have to face. They are, therefore, virtually defeated before they have even really thought about the possibility of how they intend to meet the challenge head on.

Becoming Resilient

You’ll have possibly seen friends cope with things such as a serious illness, the death of a loved one or the loss of a job and wondered how they’ve coped with these adversities so well. Basically, they’ll have made a conscious decision to be positive about life and resilient and it truly is all about choice and your own attitude towards that. Resilience isn’t about not experiencing difficult emotions or sweeping things under the carpet but about choosing to harness your inner strengths to help you cope when times are tough. If you think that the alternative is to dwell on problems and feel victimised, isn’t it likely that you’d choose to become more resilient?

Facing the Challenge Head on

Your ability to succeed when faced with a difficult challenge lies in your mental attitude. It’s often easy to have a positive approach to life when things are going well but you need to adopt the same principles when faced with adversity. Look at successful business people or others that you admire as an example. They all recognise that challenges and difficulties are part and parcel of life and that there are inevitably going to be setbacks and disappointments along the way. They are clever enough to sidestep the problems and hurdles most of the time but when they do crop up, watch how they learn from the challenges and rise above them.

Often people find that by talking inwardly to themselves and reinforcing positive values that it prevents negative feelings surfacing and so they are able to take control of any given situation, no matter how challenging.

It’s virtually impossible to hold both positive and negative thoughts at the same time. Therefore, by keeping optimistic and your mind positive you can interpret any difficult event as a challenge to be overcome as opposed to it being an insurmountable problem.

If you see challenges as valuable ‘lessons’ which will make you stronger as a person, you’ll see them as an opportunity for personal growth as opposed to something to be feared that’s going to really test your mettle.

Self-Affirmation

Standing in front of a mirror when we’re getting ready to go out is something that we all do as part of everyday life but one of the best ways of adopting a positive attitude to challenges is to actually talk to ourselves in the mirror. Saying things out loud like, “I’m the best person to tackle this, I can do it” drives these thoughts into your subconscious and, over time, you can actually reprogram your thinking patterns so that challenges become just another small aspect of your life as opposed to being this huge mountain you have to try to climb over.

Keep your mind positive and visualise what you want to achieve and how you intend to go about achieving it. Resolve to stay cheerful and resist temptations to think negatively about any aspect of life. View setbacks as an opportunity to grow and, ultimately, you’ll find that challenges are conquered with ease and that your mind will have adopted an approach where it decides that nothing is going to stand in your way along your route to success in whatever form that may take.