Faith WoodIt’s often said that life is synopses with challenges. If everything were black and white and went how we expected it to turn out, would it be worth living?

You may find it difficult to see the bright side of things, and challenges may become too difficult to bear or handle. There are a variety of reasons why you may have to choose not to deal with them, especially if they’re traumatic or painful.

You may be dealing with denial or charting territory not yet travelled by your family. The biggest thing to remember is there’s no wrong answer to a life equation. And by viewing everything as an opportunity to learn and grow, these negatively-viewed challenges will become growth opportunities that, although difficult, are worth it to your overall development.

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By creating a moral code and a lens to view situations, you can better direct your life toward something you want and travel toward that goal.

Living in denial 

The idea of denying a situation is what we mean when we say we aren’t dealing with life’s challenges. This becomes a problem when it starts to pile up and builds into a harmful habit.

To counter this negative habit, we have to replace it with a positive one. It may not come naturally as we have to unlearn old behaviours and learn new ones. If you find this incredibly tricky, perhaps enlist the help of a therapist or friend.

Changing your perception on life

The most significant component and overall theme of facing life’s challenges is your perception of life. You need to change the way you view of life and the situations at hand.

Strategies to deal with life’s challenges

View life how it’s presented to you, rather than viewing it the way you wish it would be. View it from the perception of how it is. Unrealistic expectations and denial can stop you from making progress. To find a solution, you must first accept a mistake.

Embrace how it is while you work toward bettering it for yourself. This goes in line with viewing it how it is rather than sulking about it. Just because life doesn’t turn out how you thought it would, it doesn’t mean you should give up on it. Accepting how it is doesn’t equate to giving up on creating a better life for yourself.

Take your time. The idea of instant gratification seems more and more common. Perhaps there’s profitability in getting people to act fast and compulsively. When you put the amount of time we have in life into perspective, you have a lot more than what society chooses to believe.

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Perceptions that aren’t aligned with our firmly-held beliefs often lead to misunderstandings and conflict

Life is built on a collection of knowledge over time. Making money, learning new things, trying new things, etc., aren’t linear. There isn’t a correct formula. You can take your time, figure out what you want in life, and then go back to your goals later when you can act on them.

Stay close to your feelings and practise gratitude. Know how you feel about certain situations. Keep a log if you need to. Feelings and emotions will help you determine when you’re on the correct path. By understanding what you like and dislike, you can better mould what you would like to learn.

Accept failure as part of the journey. Understand that failure will happen, and don’t be afraid to learn from it. Just because you fail once doesn’t mean you will never succeed; it just means that perhaps you should alter how you do something.

Once you get a handle on facing life’s challenges, they will no longer control you. Instead, you will embrace them since they’re a product of life.

Faith Wood is a novelist and professional speaker who focuses on helping groups and individuals navigate conflict, shift perceptions and improve communications. For interview requests, click here.


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