How to overcome obstacles?
When we talk about life goals they are an important part of life and everyone should have them. But, when we talk about goals everyone is not sure of how to do them.
Goal management is a process that is a regular exercise and goes on at every stage of our life.
It is basically divided into two parts
One is the goal planning in an effective manner and he second is working on obstacles that come in the way of achieving these goals.
Most of us are not able to achieve our goals not because we have unreachable goals, rather it is due to unexpected obstacles and setbacks which come in our way. But, we need to understand that nothing comes easy, so this is the case with goal achievement. It also comes with these bombs, but they can be diffused if we work with them carefully.
A survey was conducted just to ask what is the kind of obstacles people face in the process of goal achievement.
The answers were in different shapes and sizes, but they can be broadly categorized into 3 categories
- Environmental
- Social
- Personal
Environmental Obstacles
The ones that are sudden and come due to unexpected occurrences for which we are not prepared as we may not be sometimes aware of it that something like this is coming. We do not have any control over them. But, if we do some research and be proactive in our lives, we can plan methods to deal with these contingencies and we may be able to deal with them in an effective manner.
If you plan for the future, you can understand the scenarios and the consequences of your decision and actions. Adopt a 360-degree approach of thinking where you start making full use of your abilities to foresight while making decisions.
Remember “Anything that goes wrong will go wrong at the worst possible time when you least expect.”
Social Obstacles
The ones that happen because of your support system, including your family members, friends, and peer group. They are either not willing to cooperate with you, they are incompetent or they try to sabotage you which makes them incapable of fulfilling the responsibilities assigned to them.
If you do little forward planning you can ensure that you clarify your needs adequately, download your knowledge thoroughly, and your instructions with utter carefulness. You also need to look at the possibilities to influence people by understanding their needs, motives, and desires. This will help you to get away with social obstacles.
Personal Obstacles
The ones that relate to your psychology, which includes your fears, beliefs, emotions, or state of mind and behavior which includes habits like perfectionism, procrastination, pessimism, etc., or incompetencies like personal skills, communication skills, etc.
These are the problems that 80% of people deal with but these can be taken care of if you commit yourself to it as it relates to you, your thought process, or how you behave.
Now, as you know the obstacle and you also know that nothing is impossible to deal with.
Let’s just understand the steps to overcome the obstacles which are done with the A3 formula.
A3 Formula (Acquire, Analyze, and Act)
- Acquire – You need to acquire adequate guidance from mentors, coaches, and experts in the field of your career so that you know what to do. Then you need to acquire knowledge so that you are an expert in your field and you know the obstacle. You can also ask for support from your peer group if needed in order to make things work.
- Analyze – After acquiring the knowledge you should be doing an appropriate analysis of the obstacle so that you have full details of the obstacle. While doing the analysis first get the basic details of the problem like whether the problem is existing or not? When did it start? How did it start? What do you or others think about the obstacle?
While doing the analysis you should also look at the consequences of the obstacle as if it continues to be there. What bigger problem can be because of this obstacle?. How will it affect you, your life, or the people around you?. You also need to look for ways to control the obstacle effect on you and the people around you.
During the whole process, you can look at the options available to you like who all are the people who can assist you? What can you do differently so that this obstacle moves out of your way? When will you get to know that the obstacle is resolved?
It is also suggested that you should see the positive side of the problem as every obstacle comes with new learning and hope. The answers to questions like what have you learned? How it has made you a better person? Will give you the positive effect of the problem.
Act– when you have done the analysis and acquired knowledge, it’s time to act so write the obstacle, plan the objective why? How the obstacle needs to be solved? Develop a mindset that beliefs in taking actions creatively.
And at the end start working towards it.
After doing all that will be the outcomes or results. The results will be:
- You will be able to take a decision regarding what you want and what you do not want.
- You will get rid of negative feelings like quitting or denial.
- You will stop looking for sympathy.
- You will stop blaming others or yourself.
- You will cultivate positive feelings like optimism, gratitude, commitment, pro-activeness.
- You will cultivate discipline.
- You will cultivate self-confidence and self-belief.
- You will learn to involve in experiments.
- You will learn to accept circumstances as they are.
- You will learn to make the necessary sacrifices.
- You will start taking small steps at a time.
- You will stop giving excuses.
- You will ultimately have a problem-solving approach by looking at opportunities in problems.
So, you can see how an obstacle is just solvable if a sincere effort is made to solve it. It is just a matter of taking those few steps with a positive frame of mind. So, now when there is an obstacle look at it as an opportunity to grow as a person and as an expert in your field.
I have got more career and communication advice and inspiration for you at www.anjujindal.com.
The famous courses I have for people are Fearless communicator blueprint, Career growth blueprint.
To join the community for free courses – community career growth mastermind.
About the Author: Anju Jindal
Anju is a trainer, entrepreneur, and career growth specialist who helps students, working professionals, women, and Job seekers to reach out to their goals by implementing a Career Growth plan