Win your challenges with our unique solutions

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Whenever people use the word ‘struggle’ to describe their situation, I tell them to rephrase it and think of it as challenges.

This word makes me think of a fish out of water. Now that’s real struggle, survival for life.

In contrast a challenge is something where you still have power to do something about it. Instead of procrastinating, you can take action. Any action will do as long as you are making a move to overcome the challenge.

The best example I can think of is Viktor E. Frankl, whose book Man’s Search for Meaning is among the most influential works of psychiatric literature since Freud.

This must read book begins with a lengthy, austere, and deeply moving personal essay about Frankl’s imprisonment in Auschwitz and other concentration camps for 5 years, and his struggle during this time to find reasons to live.

Frankl believed that man’s deepest desire is to search for meaning and purpose.

If he could find meaning and survive the challenge of staying alive, then why can’t we?

Are you living life or thinking in ‘someday I will’ terms?

If I were to count a dollar for each time I’ve heard people wanting to do big things or make a difference I’d have a very big bank balance!

Sadly they balk at the thought of taking that decisive or inspired action and stay in struggle mode.

That’s a sign putting off living. Instead of accepting their Call to Adventure, they stay safe in their comfort zones and watch the world pass by their windows.

It’s okay to dream about how green the grass is on the other side, but what about exploring to determine whether that’s the case?

Or attempting to fertilize their grass or make it greener?

Are you struggling right now?

Without the tough fieldwork, there can be no harvest. Then why think of it in terms of struggle?

A few years back I was at the wedding of a friend’s daughter. I ran into one of her friends who had become a model after winning a beauty pageant. She said she wasn’t doing as well as she had thought she would.

My friend told me the girl had to struggle to be successful. I beg to differ. Work hard? Yes.

Go after opportunities to get a foothold in a highly competitive industry? Yes.

But it doesn’t mean you have to struggle so much!

View the world with the right lens and embrace any struggle as part of the process to success. We can find fulfilment in life’s difficult challenges.

Many incredible people have struggled and managed to overcome it to succeed and find happiness. They’ve accepted struggle as being part of the process to the final goal of success.

Believe it or not, you’ve got everything necessary to do so in your toolkit. It’s time that you discovered them for yourself to struggle less and succeed more.

5 Ways to stop struggling for Success

1. Know when it’s time to Let Go

The first step is to stop holding onto what you need to let go of or what no longer serves you.

Whether that is a job, a person, a thing, a painful memory or even the person you view yourself as.

If something is simply fueling pain and robbing you of fulfilment, why are you holding on?

In order for better things to enter your life, you need to make space for it. Honor and value yourself enough to know when to walk away.

2. Don’t measure success by material possessions

We all want certain material items. Some may be aspirational and others that fulfil our Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. However, that’s not the measure of a life well-lived.

The true measure of a life well-lived is that it is filled with love, compassion, and kindness. It’s finding fulfillment.

You will be on the receiving end of what you want because you fill your life with positivity. All of those little things add up to bigger things. Make a habit of finding the positive in your day.

3. Be Who You Are

When you wake up in the morning, you have the choice to be the person you want to be. If you’re struggling to become who you’d like to be, it’s probably because you’ve been sucked into the habit of being someone else.

Take the bull by the horns and start acting like the person you want to be. You can learn more about yourself when you surround yourself with positive people who lift you up.

4. Don’t Make It Harder Than Necessary

We are all guilty of making life too complicated. Success is hard to achieve because it requires you to overcome struggle and sometimes challenges. That’s a fact.

However, sometimes we make life far too difficult for ourselves. It makes life seem like an endless struggle when it doesn’t have to be.

Start with the small things – follow through when you give your word, eat well, be on time, act with integrity. It doesn’t have to be difficult, don’t make it harder than necessary.

5. Struggle Less – Your Life’s Blueprint

Once you know what success truly means to you, it’s up to you to make choices daily that will lead you in the correct direction.

Humans are creatures of habit, the actions you take and the choices you make form your blueprint for life.

Focus on what matters to you, and success is inevitable. If you make a mistake, don’t sweat it – every day offers you a new opportunity.

These tips will help you develop the right mindset but you may still experience anxiety until you’ve transformed you way of viewing life and taking the right actions.

Changes don’t happen overnight and habits need to be developed with positive reinforcement.

Coping With the Anxiety That Struggle Brings

The biggest fallout of struggle is that it brings anxiety with it. The extent of anxiety depends on how fertile your imagination is or the strength of your Inner Critic.

In such a scenario, it’s easy to withdraw when you feel like this. You shun social interactions and you question the world at large.

It’s easy to slip into a rut. You may feel inadequate, as though your actions and behaviors have caused this trouble.

In truth, you aren’t necessarily responsible for the struggles that life throws at you.

However, you are responsible for how to deal with the struggles that life throws at you. In addition to learning how to overcome struggle, you must also learn to cope with the anxiety that follows.

Diffuse anxiety and fear with journaling or just write it out

Writing might seem like a cliché, but it’s powerful. It’s a powerful way to process your thoughts and feelings and to get everything out in a journal. It really does make you feel better.

Writing can also help you gain perspective about the situation that you’re in. It isn’t easy to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Yet, when you write it out you have a chance to read back and really think about things.

With writing comes clarity and often, anxiety and struggle cloud focus and clarity. It can be difficult to see the situation from other perspectives when you’re trying to look at it through a haze.

Talk about it

Purge fearful thoughts and feelings by talking them out with someone you trust. There is power in talking about the struggle and anxiety that you are experiencing.

As you talk about your struggles, you process the underlying emotions that come along with them and feel cleansed by the time you‘re done – like you have purged all of the negativity from your system.

Choose a professional, a support group or a close friend.

A therapist is a professional specializing in anxiety disorders and can offer an unbiased ear.

A support group will offer you a group of people who are experiencing similar issues. You might be surprised by how powerful it can be to discuss struggle and anxiety with people walking through the same storm.

Likewise, chatting with a friend about what’s going on in your like can relieve a bit of the anxiety you may be dealing with. Struggle is frustrating. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by life, seeking out your social network can be beneficial.

Choose your conversation partner carefully. Avoid confiding in people that are overly negative, closed-minded, or judgmental.

Instead, select someone with a lot of life experience, is generally successful and well-balanced in their own life, and would be supportive and encouraging in their approach to your problem.

These are the people who might be able to provide solid objective insights that you may have missed because you were too emotionally involved in the situation.

Practice Meditation

It’s the answer to (almost) everything. Meditation comes with so many benefits, that it should come as no surprise that it can help you deal with anxiety. There is a multitude of ways that meditation can relieve anxiety, and according to the Eco-Institute, there are at least 11.

Humans think between 60 and 80,000 thoughts daily… imagine how those thoughts fuel anxiety when you’re dealing with struggle?

Your thoughts take a turn to the negative when you’re dealing with anxiety and exacerbate the issue. Meditation helps you focus your mind and purge those negative thoughts, whilst also quieting your mind.

Learn to Cope With Struggle

It’s causing you anxiety, but what can you do with the root cause of the problem? Address your struggles!

Struggle is a natural aspect of life, it’s going to happen whether you take proactive steps to prevent it or not. You can’t just stop it. You will be a stronger, more successful person when you learn how to cope with struggle by overcoming it.

Re-frame how you view struggle – it’s simply a challenge for you to overcome. It’s not the obstacle that will serve as your downfall, it’s merely a hurdle for you to hop after some intense training. Changing your mindset on struggle will help you cope with the anxiety that is sure to come with it.

You can achieve what you want, and you can succeed more while struggling less. ‘

Struggle will never go away, it’s a natural part of life. It’s important you don’t lose hope as you walk the path of life. There is enough happiness to go around. If you believe in yourself, then you can do whatever you want.