How to Deal With Obstacles on the Way to Achieving Your Goals

How many times have you committed to a new goal (or recommitted to an old one) with a fresh burst of energy and enthusiasm, only to find yourself getting derailed somewhere along the way?  You encounter an obstacle that throws you off course, and your efforts come to a halt.

All that confidence and enthusiasm you started off with fades away, replaced with frustration and discouragement.  As those feelings intensify and gain a deeper foothold, many people wind up abandoning their goals entirely.  How do you avoid this scenario?

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Beyond a Positive Attitude

Does pushing past the obstacles simply come down to maintaining a positive attitude?  A positive attitude certainly helps in most areas of life, but when it comes to dealing with obstacles, striving to stay positive isn't enough.  In fact, focusing on attitude alone can backfire when it fails to produce tangible results, leaving you feeling even more disheartened, deflated, and frustrated. 

The obstacles in your path are real, and their impact is real.  Therefore, they require real attention and real solutions, which often involves more than just a positive attitude.  Note that this applies to imagined obstacles as well, which are no less real, even if only in your mind. The secret is arming yourself with a practical strategy for dealing with obstacles when you run into them. 

Steps for Dealing With Obstacles

Step 1:  acknowledgement is the first step in pushing past an obstacle and moving forward towards your goals.  Burying your head in the sand and ignoring issues doesn't make them go away.

Step 2:  you need to adopt a solution-oriented attitude towards the issues in your way to keep them from stopping you in your tracks.  You might not know what the solution is immediately, but that doesn't mean a solution doesn't exist; you just haven't found it yet.  A solution-oriented mindset allows you to retain a measure of control, regardless of what you're up against.  This protects you from becoming overwhelmed or giving in to an attitude of helplessness.

Step 3:  take action to find and implement a suitable solution to address the obstacle you're facing.  Keep in mind that regardless of the nature of what you're facing, it's almost a certainty that someone else has faced the same thing.  This means you're likely to find information or tools that can help, if you look for them.  Action might also involve some trial and error before you land on something that works for your particular situation and circumstances.

This 3-step approach – acknowledgement, attitude, and action – goes beyond positive thinking and encompasses positive action, which is critical for successfully achieving your goals.
 
It's easy to feel discouraged and overwhelmed when we encounter obstacles on the way to achieving our goals.  In some cases, giving in to discouragement causes us to give up on our goal.  Or, in our eagerness to stay positive, we ignore the issue in front of us, which doesn't benefit us in the long term.  Neither of these is a winning approach. 

However, when you acknowledge what's in the way, adopt a solution-oriented attitude, and follow through with action, you're guaranteed to make progress of some kind.  Your sense of self-efficacy remains intact, you stay focused, and you keep the momentum going.  And before you know it, you've overcome the obstacle that was in your way and you're back on track again working toward your goal.