Guest Blog: by Lireko Dorothy Ncube
In business, as in life, I frequently hear the saying: “There is light at the end of the tunnel”. However, we need to remind ourselves that even though sometimes it is quite difficult to walk through the tunnel, particularly in the face of challenges or hurdles (and this particularly applies in the entrepreneurial space), we just need to give ourselves a little push and keep walking.
This same philosophy applies to hard times too, which inevitably surface from time to time in business, and in life - we tend to lose focus when things are going bad, and focus all our energy on the negative, instead of concentrating on the lessons learnt and what we can take positively out of a challenging situation.
So, here are 3 ways to say positive when you're facing seemingly overwhelming challenges.
1. Embrace the Negatives
When you acknowledge and face challenges head on, you are more likely to deal with them in a much more positive and focused way, than if you let yourself get stressed and lose focus, or dwell too much on the negative. Instead, increase your focus on positive thoughts whilst accepting that sometimes things do not always go the way we want them to.
"Accept failures and learn from them and make sure the same challenge is avoided or dealt with differently in future."
2. Set Goals
Every little achievement attained must be celebrated. So no matter how tough things are, set goals for yourself. Once your goals are in place, and you have set timelines as to when you want to achieve each goal by, it is highly unlikely that you will focus your energy on the negative. Yes things may go wrong sometimes along the way, but it is of the utmost importance to pick yourself up and “keep walking”. Even giants fall sometimes, but it’s what they do after falling that matters. Don’t stay down. Slowly rise up to the top and aim to achieve your set goals as planned.
3. Aim To Do Better
If you want something badly enough, then just do it. Grasp new concepts, open yourself up to new ideas, and put them into practice. Creating new ideas can revive the inner you, as well as help you to improve on your past mistakes. Keep an open mind, collect as much knowledge and information as possible from anyone and everybody, and decide what to use to help you to improve.
"The trick is to not repeat the same mistakes that you have made in the past, but instead learn from them and do better next time."
Finally, don’t beat yourself up, challenges are a part of life and they should not destroy you, but instead make you stronger!
Lireko Dorothy Ncube is a guest editorial contributor to Lionesses of Africa, living and working in South Africa, and will be a regular blogger on the site on a number of lifestyle and communications topics over the coming months.