6 Strategies for Overcoming Struggles and Moving on With Life
Life tests each one of us. But these struggles aren’t meant to break us apart. They’re meant to build us into the strongest version of ourselves.
People fall into a negative spiral when things aren’t going right. They develop unhealthy coping mechanisms – alcohol, drugs, smoking, self-harm, and so on. But there’s still hope. If people just seek help and see things from a different perspective, they will find that things can change and that overcoming struggles isn’t that hard..
As Robert Downey Jr. said in an interview about overcoming struggles, drug problems in his case, “It’s not that difficult to overcome these seemingly ghastly problems. What’s hard is to decide to actually do it.”
1. Build A Boundary
The seed for change has to come from your mind. When you’re going through serious struggles, it feels like you’re running in circles and making no progress. In this situation, it’s important to draw a line that signifies that things are going to get better from now on.
Yes, you will fail again, but this time you will learn from failures and pick yourself back up. When things get overwhelming, it’s okay to cry and feel broken, but you will take a small step forward.
Establishing this mental boundary will help you see things from a fresh perspective and leave all anxiety, shame, guilt, and resentment in the past. The key here is to decide that you will keep a positive attitude through all ups and downs and self-sabotage. Your attitude is the key to overcoming struggles.
2. Take Lessons From Others
Do this to take the heavy weight off your shoulders. Nobody in this world has achieved anything on their own. Everyone needs mentors, colleagues, and role models to reach their goals. So find someone who has overcome the same struggles. Learn from their mistakes, use their strategies.
Success is a result of following certain patterns. Study these patterns. Want emotional strength? Exercise every day and keep a gratitude journal. Want happiness and fulfillment? Give back to the poor and needy and nurture your relationships. Overcoming struggles will become easy once you adopt the patterns of successful people who have overcome the same struggles.
3. Never Stop Trying
When something isn’t working, let it go. Try something else. Usually a quick Google search is enough to find the different solutions to your problem. Try it. Sometimes what we never try can have tremendous impact on our life.
For example, if you suffer from terrible anxiety, exercise every day, eat healthy, and take good care of your sleep. Generally, when people feel healthy, they feel happy. Overcoming struggles doesn’t mean doing something fancy. You need to take care of the basics first, in this case, this means taking care of your health.
4. Let Go of Hard Feelings
To truly move on, you have to let go of anger, guilt, and resentment. Forgive others – not for them – but because you know better. Harboring a negative feeling towards anything or anyone will only suck your energy.
Realize we are all humans and we make mistakes. So it’s essential to let go of what others did to you or what you couldn’t do in the past. Don’t be too hard on yourself and treat yourself like you’re your best friend, this will make overcoming struggles much easier.
5. Execute The Right Plan
People execute the wrong plan all the time. What does it mean? People often know what to do, but they get stuck in a rut, repeating the same old mistakes.
Why do we execute the wrong plan? Because it’s easy to let the weak version of yourself win. It’s easy to numb yourself with alcohol, it’s easy to self-destruct, it’s easy to do nothing and watch TV all day.
The solution? Learn to do things even when you don’t feel like doing them. Life is much like going to the gym. You don’t ever want to work out, but after you are done, you feel amazing.
6. Conquer Your Mind
The mind is everything. You can either let your emotions overwhelm you or you can create positive emotions with positive action. Thoughts, feelings, and even physical pain – they are like clouds in the sky, they come and go. Don’t identify too much with them and learn to have control over your mind. The mind is the key to overcoming struggles.
Become aware of what you feed your mind. You can feed it with negativity by listening to the negative voice within yourself and self-destructing. Or you can feed it with positivity by working towards your goals, taking small steps when it gets overwhelming and believing in yourself.