These 20 methods will help you change your mind set about

overcoming challenges in your life.

1. Seek out adversity

Struggle builds character. Often the moments in our life we are most proud of are the ones where
we overcame adversity to accomplish something worthwhile. Do something that pushes you to
your limits and beyond. Nothing will make you feel more unstoppable than revealing to yourself
that you are capable of far more than you ever imagined.

2. Build a team

Success is a team sport. No one does it alone, so don’t try and be the first person in the world to
do so. Find friends or family to work together with to drive your life forward. Get in a
mastermind group or get an accountability buddy that you check in with every single day to
monitor your progress.

3. Focus on the positive

We are all conditioned with what psychologists call “The Negativity Bias.” Unfortunately our
brain has a natural inclination to focus on threats and dangers, even perceived ones we create. To
destroy this evolutionary construct, throughout your day focus on what is positive and right
about the world around you. Find reasons to appreciate everything around you.

4. Label your emotion

The neuroscientist Dr. Matthew Lieberman has shown that the simple act of labeling our
emotions reduces activity in the emotional brain and increases activity in the areas of the brain
associated with focus and awareness. The next time you are stuck in an emotional pattern that
isn’t serving you, label the emotion to separate yourself from the experience. This will allow you
to then consciously choose a new one.

5. Choose new stories

We all tell ourselves stories about who we are, how the world works and what people are like.
More often than not, as a result of the negativity bias at play, those stories are dis-empowering.
Even when the economy is bad, many people are still making money. So you can choose to
believe the story that the economy is bad, or you can write a new story that the world is ripe for
the picking. If we are going to tell stories, we might as well tell ones that empower us.

6. Write a journal
Every time you find yourself stuck or facing a life challenge, write down your thoughts in a
journal. This allows you to get out of your head and separate yourself from the impact of the
experience. It brings the conscious brain into play while reducing the effects of the unconscious,
emotional brain.

7. Exercise

When Richard Branson was asked about his secret to productivity, his response was working out.
For at least three days a week, do some sort of exercise. This has been shown to improve habits
in all areas of your life and improve your overall self-confidence. It will also give you the energy
to overcome the life challenges you might be facing.

8. Get out in nature

Psychologist Marc Berman has shown that interacting with nature improves the quality of a
person’s life and their brain functioning as well. Every day, or at least once a week if you live in
a big city, get out in nature and spend some time in the serenity of the great outdoors.

9. Celebrate your summits

Write down a list of all your successes you have achieved in your life. Every single one. Try to
reach at least 50. Moving forward, any time you experience a win, stop and celebrate it. This will
drive your brain to keep taking the actions that led to the pleasurable emotion.

10. Seek out new summits

Similar to a bucket list, write down a list of all the summits you wish to reach in the rest of your
life. This gives you something to focus on. It gives you a reason to push through any struggle
that might come up in your journey. Bestselling author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul Series,
Jack Canfield has found that those who set goals and write them down are far more likely to
succeed than those that don’t.

11. Anchor it in

Think of a time when you felt more confident than you have ever felt before. Now clench your
fist. Keep doing this every day. Your body will start to associate the clenched fist with the
feeling of confidence. So the next time you aren’t feeling very powerful, just clench your fist.

12. Time travel

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Go back in time to all those memories that have robbed you of your confidence and create new
meanings to them. Cognitive psychologist, Elizabeth Loftus has shown that memories can be
changed and even false memories can be implanted in people. What this means is that you can
literally go back in time and change your memories simply by repeatedly picturing the event
while anchored into a positive state, so the meaning of the memory will become a positive one.

13. Step into another person's shoes

The next time you find yourself stuck and facing a challenge, ask yourself what someone you
admire would do in your situation. Do what they would do when they go through struggle. One
of the fastest ways to get what you want in life is to find someone who has it and do what they
have done. The same can be done for a mental state as well.

14. Stand tall

Social psychologist Amy Cuddy has found that a strong body language actually changes the
inner workings of your brain. Practice standing tall and embodying a posture of unbreakable
confidence everywhere you go. This will ingrain it deep into your mind and your being.

15. Use confident language

If everyday you use the word depressed, you will become so. Studies have repeatedly shown that
when people have been exposed to words relating to old age, they walked slower than those that
were exposed to younger words. They saw old words and thus acted old. Use words like
powerful, unstoppable and confident as a regular part of your daily vocabulary.

16. Ask new questions

All thoughts are questions or answers to questions. If you disagreed with me, it’s because your
mind asked is he right or wrong? Most people ask questions like, “What’s wrong with me?” Or
“Why can’t I do this?” If you ask questions like that, your brain will find an answer. Instead, ask
yourself questions like, “What is good about this situation?” “How can I make this work?” The
questions you ask yourself shape your experience of life.

17. Schedule confidence

Tony Robbins says “If you talk about it, it's a dream, if you envision it, it's possible, but if you
schedule it, it's real.” Whatever you want to get done in your life, whatever challenges you want
to overcome put it in a calendar and schedule it.

18. Be still

In his research, Dr. Andrew Newberg found that brain scans of meditating Buddhists had greater
activity in the parts of the brain associated with focus and awareness than those that do not
engage in some sort of meditation. For 10 minutes a day, sit in silence without distractions and
just be with your thoughts. This will improve your ability to focus on finding solutions to
challenges and creating the life you want to live — as opposed to being at the mercy of
circumstances.

19. Get something done

Who doesn’t love getting results? If you want to figure out an answer to a challenge, take action
and accomplish something. No matter how small, set a task related to your challenge and finish it
to completion.

20. Make your desired actions automatic

The key to mastering self-control and willpower in the face of a challenge is learning how to
build positive habits. Keep practicing a desired action for at least 30 days to make your new habit
automatic and something you no longer have to think about. Practice building one desired habit a
month to help you feel more accomplished and in control of your life.

In the comments below, I would love to hear other strategies that have worked for you to
overcome life difficulties. If you have something you are struggling with, please share it so
together we can figure out how to get to the other side of that wall.

Akshay Nanavati is a Marine Corps veteran of the war in Iraq turned adventurer and success
consultant. Today, he helps people build an unstoppable mindset and grow a business online so
that they too can live their dream lifestyle. 

Tagged With: overcome challenges, overcome life challenges, overcoming challenges,

overcoming fear, overcoming your weaknesses

Comments

1. Akshay Nanavati

November 7, 2013 at 3:43 pm

Hi Barrie. Thanks a lot for having on your amazing blog. It’s a real honor. Looking
forward to hearing everyone’s thoughts on how they have overcome struggle.

2. Patrik Edblad
 November 7, 2013 at 7:27 pm

This article reminded me of Jia Jiang’s super inspiring WDS talk

(http://vimeo.com/70167462) on how he got over his fear of rejection by purposely
seeking out rejection a hundred times.

This is great stuff, Akshay. One of the best guest articles I’ve read, for sure. Keep it
up! 🙂

o Akshay Nanavati

November 9, 2013 at 10:10 pm

Wow! Thanks a lot for the compliment Patrik. Really glad you enjoyed the article.
And thanks for sharing Jia’s talk as well. Loved it!

o Gokaran Reddy

December 11, 2013 at 7:57 am

Thank you for that link to the Video!

Its Amazing.

3. Larry Hochman

November 8, 2013 at 1:47 am

Gorgeous piece! I would add one thing, and it’s really a combination of several you
already included…

Find someplace you normally drive to, and walk instead. Notice the landmarks you
usually travel past and observe the details. One of my favorite things is to notice brooks
and streams I don’t normally see while driving. Very good pattern changer.

Great post, Akshay!

o Akshay Nanavati

November 9, 2013 at 10:12 pm

 Hi Larry. Thanks you! Glad you liked the post. I love your suggestion as well and
I completely agree with you. I see so much more of the world when I walk, run or
even bike through new places as opposed to when I drive through them. Awesome
input Larry! Thanks for sharing.

4. pratap singh

November 8, 2013 at 1:40 pm

hi i am having a problem though i have a knack of taking challenges but most of the
times when i visualize bad things or memories come up how can i deal with it

o Akshay Nanavati

November 9, 2013 at 10:20 pm

Hi Pratap. Thank you for your courage in sharing where you are at. To normalize
your experience, human beings all have a natural inclination toward the negative.
It’s called the negativity bias. Our brain actually ingrains bad memories into it
easier than it does good ones. It’s a part of our evolutionary conditioning. So you
are just doing what is normal for us as human beings. To succeed in life, we
simply have to condition that out of us and start practicing focusing on the
positive. I highly recommend you read the article linked to below, it goes into
much more detail about our evolutionary conditioning and how we can combat it.
And then I would recommend you start small by taking on smaller and easier
challenges first. Write down a list of things that would be challenging for you and
every day, or every week, you decide, practice taking on one of those things. Each
step outside your comfort zone will push it further and further out. If you need
any more support or have any more questions for me, please feel free to reach out
and I would be more than happy to support you in any way I can. Hope this helps
Pratap.

5. Brian Wallis

November 11, 2013 at 1:56 am

I would add: learn something new. Everyday. It really doesn’t matter what, just use the
brain for a bit of new every day, it’s the best way to keep it young and active, so it can
help you reach any goals you have.
 o Akshay Nanavati

November 12, 2013 at 5:48 pm

Hi Brian. This is a great addition. Learning something new really builds the brain
muscle and actually creates new neurological pathways. Thanks a lot for sharing
this!

6. Gokaran Reddy

December 11, 2013 at 7:57 am

Thank you Akshay Sir!

Nice Post!

7. lemuel

March 30, 2014 at 3:17 pm

Hi Akshay

Very helpful blog, In reality its realy hard to face problems specialy when your at the
edge, your right, we realy need to practice how to handle challenges in our life, based
from my experience negative side of the problem will rwaly drag you down if you dont
know how to handle it. Some freal friends help will help you back to your feet fom there
real friends can realy help you to stand plus your self disipline, all problems can be
solved. thanks and God bless……

8. Liza

April 11, 2014 at 2:28 pm

Hi Akshay,
This blog is very helpful, thanks for posting it.
I am struggling with revision for my A-Level exams in a few weeks. I’ve put a lot of
pressure on myself in that I need to get A*A*A in my exams to get into Oxford Uni.
This is really starting to freak me out. Even though I’m doing as many hours of revision
as I can, I’m still worried it won’t be enough.
I would be very grateful if you have any advice on strategies for reducing stress or how to
 build confidence and a positive mindset, so that when the exams come, I don’t just freak
out.
Thank you very much
From Liza

9. rajiv kumar jha

September 13, 2014 at 5:45 pm

The blog is absolutely fantastic. Especially when it comes to implementing this thoghts
into regular life. But the hard thing is that we are already bounded by people who thinks
such things but denies to accept them when it comes to implementing these thoughts .
Well it will be foolish to waste our time to be with those people.who. denies to be with us
during implementing those.thoughts.

10. jane bold

October 16, 2014 at 12:23 pm

Gud job! I ve bin having a very long issue of getting stable in life. As per job and other
areas and its rily giving me concern no matter how hard I try. And its begining 2 affect
my outlook abt life.

11. Lynn E. Suits

November 29, 2014 at 5:48 pm

Excellent Article!.Thanks to this Article it made me realized what I want to do and how
dumb i am back then.Thanks for making this Article about life challenges!

12. Taamba Naanda

February 18, 2015 at 9:14 am

Hi there I always find it difficult when I experienced life problems and some times I dont
succeed I just end up stress and now this will help me do some important decision before
I take action .thank you very much.
 13. Zsazsa

March 18, 2015 at 11:15 am

Life challenges can either devastate or re-create us. We have the power to choose for
ourselves. I battled with enormous life challenges and I am still unstoppable to live with
courage and confidence to face all of them. I felt alone and small but I realized,
everything happens for best reason. Every life challenge makes me who I am today,
living without fear and I know I am capable also to touch and empower others in
combatting with trials. I have been through with feeble financial condition, vulnerable
relationships and emotional terrorits at work, I just believed in myself and moved on. The
most important thing that I valued from these experiences is to remain good despite
failures and never hold any grudges. Let go, believe, Have faith and Smile.

Saying

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