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Don’t Let Anything Stand In Your Way…
Every goal you set comes with a price. That price is the sacrifice of your time, energy and the mental resources you need to overcome all the obstacles that stand between you and your goal.
Often the bigger and more audacious the goal the harder you will need to work to achieve it, and the more resistance you will subsequently face. After all, if achieving this goal was easy then everyone would do it, right?
Often the average person looks for the easiest possible route. They look for the shortcut that will get them to their goal in quick succession.
They pursue this goal with zest and passion and then suddenly face an unexpected obstacle in the form of a brick wall. The wall presents a problem that prevents them from moving forward. Now, of course this brick wall is not infinite in size. It’s finite and there are certainly ways to move around it. However, the average person in their haste only sees one way around the wall… through an invisible door that will magically open on their command.
The average person expects that the path towards their goal comes in the form of a straight line with no obstacles or nasty surprises. “How naive”, you might think; and you would be right.
The world doesn’t give us our goals on a silver platter. The world instead places obstacles in the form of big, thick, dirty, scary brick walls that test our resolve. In fact, life will always place brick walls along your path. These brick walls come with no invisible doors that will magically open on your command. No, they have a different purpose. They are designed to toughen you up for the journey that lies ahead.
This is why the average person quits. They quit the moment they come across a brick wall. They will of course first look for the easy way through it. However, after a quick search they realize that there are no magical invisible doors. This is of course disappointing, however they are not yet discouraged. Just maybe if they keep banging into the wall it will eventually crumble. And so they keep banging into the wall again and again doing the same thing but expecting a different result. Eventually the pain of their throbbing head gets too much to bear, and so they quit without even giving a second thought to alternative ways they could have conquered that wall.
We’ve all been there. We’ve all no doubt been that average person looking for the quick way through that invisible door. We’ve all banged our heads one too many times on a wall that would not budge. Yes, as much as it hurts, we’re all guilty of the same crime against our goals. But things don’t need to be this way… things can be very different.
That brick wall standing between you and your goal is by no means insurmountable. It was placed there to challenge you, to test your creativity, and most importantly to ward off those who don’t want this goal as badly as you.
In a ways your goal has certain barriers to entry. These barriers to entry prevent anyone and everyone from attaining this goal. Only those who want the goal badly enough, and only those who use their ingenuity, skill, knowledge, experience, energy and creativity in the right way will achieve it.
By overcoming this obstacle you join an exclusive club of individuals who have conquered that same brick wall. Of course, some of these individuals found a way over the wall, others found a way under it, while you might have found a way to sidestep it. It really doesn’t matter. We all conquer our brick walls in different ways, it just takes a little finesse and imagination to get around them.
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Action Points
When you reach a brick wall, stop for a moment and consider what it means. Look at it from a distance and see it for what it is. Identify its strengths and weaknesses, and then determine what might be the best course of action moving forward to help you conquer this obstacle.
During moments such as these, you might find it helpful to ask yourself:
- What is it specifically that I am facing?
- What do I know about this obstacle? What must I find out?
- Why did this obstacle show up in my life at this very moment?
- What is this obstacle trying to teach me?
- How is this obstacle trying to challenge me?
- Have I ever faced a similar obstacle? How did I overcome it?
- How have others overcome this obstacle?
- What’s the best way around this obstacle?
Whether it’s over, around or under, you will find a way through. A little creativity and imagination always goes a long way.
IQ Matrix Maps
Here are links to complementary IQ Matrix posters that go into more depth about this topic:
- Conquering Obstacles: Provides you with insights that will help shift how you think about obstacles.
- Overcoming Obstacles: Helps you to better understand and overcome the obstacles in your life.
- Life is an Experiment: When it comes to overcoming obstacles it helps to see life as an experiment.
- Life is a Game: Approaching your obstacles in a playful way can help you overcome them.
- Bouncing Back: When you’re defeated by an obstacle you need to know how to bounce right back.
