Everyone faces personal and professional obstacles throughout his or her life, whether the obstacles are financial, physical, emotional, or based in gender, class, or race. Sometimes you are your own biggest obstacle, when you allow your fears and self-doubt to stand in the way of your success.
Obstacles are like mountains; they’re not going to move themselves. You have to scale the mountain or go around it, reduce it to a molehill with dynamite, or dig a tunnel straight through it. You must take action to overcome it, not sit at the foot of the mountain passively hoping it will suddenly vanish so you can get on your way.
Obstacles are more than just giant problems; problems “occur” whereas obstacles are “there.” Obstacles may have always been there, or they may crop up. A problem is more finite than an obstacle. Rarely does a problem last forever. You seek to solve problems to achieve the best possible outcome, but, even if you take no action, a problem will reach some resolution eventually, though it may not be the outcome you’d like. But an obstacle won’t change itself or go away unless you do something about it.
No one has a magical formula to deal with obstacles (no dynamite except in metaphors), but you can adopt and implement some good practices when you’re faced with obstacles that can help to reduce a daunting mountain into stepping stones to success:
Believe in yourself. The great Norman Vincent Peale said it best: “Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop the picture...Do not build up obstacles in your imagination.” The first step to conquering obstacles is to realize that the answer lies within you. Maturity and experience will give you the confidence that you can overcome any impediment. In the same way, when you and your team encounter an obstacle, you must lead the team to believe in its ability to overcome it.
Seek help. Ask for guidance and support from a mentor, team, classmate, or teacher. You don’t have to overcome any obstacle solo. If a key executive leaves your organization at a crucial time, even if the loss is devastating, you should realize you have many resources to help overcome that obstacle, within and outside the organization. If you are a member or leader of a team, seek the help of appropriate experts on that team, or bring together everyone you can think of -- people in your organization, among your colleagues, throughout your sphere of influence -- and form a sort of task force to overcome the obstacle together.
Setback? Or catastrophe? When you encounter an obstacle, seek perspective and stability. How big is the obstacle, really? When you calmly and thoroughly examine the problem, you may find you are imagining the obstacle is larger than it actually is. It may only seem immovable. For example, if an important, long-term customer is dissatisfied with your organization and making noises that they might defect to the competition, you may have a lot of work to do to keep them, but it’s not a catastrophe unless you do nothing.
I'll become an airliner or corporate pilot soon and see some or all on the line! For those who doubt me so be it. Will not allow adversity to strike me down. Would even bet that after all I had to go through to get to my point today be better off in IOE/Initial training the some of the others before and during me.
Obstacles are like mountains; they’re not going to move themselves. You have to scale the mountain or go around it, reduce it to a molehill with dynamite, or dig a tunnel straight through it. You must take action to overcome it, not sit at the foot of the mountain passively hoping it will suddenly vanish so you can get on your way.
Obstacles are more than just giant problems; problems “occur” whereas obstacles are “there.” Obstacles may have always been there, or they may crop up. A problem is more finite than an obstacle. Rarely does a problem last forever. You seek to solve problems to achieve the best possible outcome, but, even if you take no action, a problem will reach some resolution eventually, though it may not be the outcome you’d like. But an obstacle won’t change itself or go away unless you do something about it.
No one has a magical formula to deal with obstacles (no dynamite except in metaphors), but you can adopt and implement some good practices when you’re faced with obstacles that can help to reduce a daunting mountain into stepping stones to success:
Believe in yourself. The great Norman Vincent Peale said it best: “Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop the picture...Do not build up obstacles in your imagination.” The first step to conquering obstacles is to realize that the answer lies within you. Maturity and experience will give you the confidence that you can overcome any impediment. In the same way, when you and your team encounter an obstacle, you must lead the team to believe in its ability to overcome it.
Seek help. Ask for guidance and support from a mentor, team, classmate, or teacher. You don’t have to overcome any obstacle solo. If a key executive leaves your organization at a crucial time, even if the loss is devastating, you should realize you have many resources to help overcome that obstacle, within and outside the organization. If you are a member or leader of a team, seek the help of appropriate experts on that team, or bring together everyone you can think of -- people in your organization, among your colleagues, throughout your sphere of influence -- and form a sort of task force to overcome the obstacle together.
Setback? Or catastrophe? When you encounter an obstacle, seek perspective and stability. How big is the obstacle, really? When you calmly and thoroughly examine the problem, you may find you are imagining the obstacle is larger than it actually is. It may only seem immovable. For example, if an important, long-term customer is dissatisfied with your organization and making noises that they might defect to the competition, you may have a lot of work to do to keep them, but it’s not a catastrophe unless you do nothing.
I'll become an airliner or corporate pilot soon and see some or all on the line! For those who doubt me so be it. Will not allow adversity to strike me down. Would even bet that after all I had to go through to get to my point today be better off in IOE/Initial training the some of the others before and during me.
