Adversity offers Challenge and Opportunity to Rise.

“Some people see the glass as half full. Others see it half empty. I see a glass that’s twice as big as it needs to be.” —George Carlin

In today’s life, whether you are soldier on enemy front or an engineer on a construction site or a doctor in operation theatre or a business executive doing marketing or even an adventurist on an excursion trip, there can be an adverse situation where you feel threatened, scared and tense. You feel struck in grave situation and unable to take right decision. One option is to exit and run away but better option is to hold on and quickly think of a solution and act fast. You must not panic or flee but calm down and improvise/innovate some solution quickly. Take this grave situation as a challenge or an opportunity to test your knowledge, grit and experience. Stay calm but alert to make timely decision to take appropriate action.

There are many examples of war scenario where bold and determined US military General Patton could change defeat into victory during World War II. Similarly, some determined people have braved through the desert storms, snow storms, avalanches, river floods, massive landslides, jungle fire, volcanic eruptions and earth quacks. Likewise, during various high-jacking situations, pilots and their support staff have stayed clam to take appropriate action and save many lives. In similar cases of business slowdown, bold and decisive leaders have sustained bad patches and turned around their growth. It is well established that those who can handle today’s adverse situation effectively, become great leaders of tomorrow.

 Some of us do experience suffering and pain when we come across emotional, social or financial crisis. Such agony could be due to uncertainty in our career or a tragedy in home life. We may curse our fate and even accuse God for such a situation and feel like quitting. You might feel depressed over failure of your project/product or deep pain over the demise of your relative/family member, separation from a loved one or chronic physical ailment like cancer of your family member. One who is in agony might think he/she is unlucky and a failure in life. However, what seems like suffering/adversity can be turned into an opportunity, if it is dealt with skill and patience.

Adversity Definition. Adversity is a difficult or unfortunate event or circumstance that can occur suddenly and makes you depressed, helpless or spell bound. As humans, we may experience adversity at workplace, in family or at any other location of activity.

Adversity creates Opportunity.

In our colleges/universities / homes we are trained / told to play safe and avoid risky situation. Our training, counselling ,coaching and grooming is done in such a way that we do all the things as per accepted norms leaving little room for any adverse situation to occur. This approach inhibits our creative thinking and we often go dumb when suddenly faced with an adverse situation. 

Infect, occurrence of adverse situations is the prime reason how the world continues to overcome various challenges and progress. Adversity needs not to be feared; rather it needs to be taken as a challenge to improvise, innovate and evolve new processes/procedures and resources. All our training and preparation should be with the objective of overcoming the inevitable adversity and converting it into favourable opportunity. Whenever we face adverse situation, our ability to quickly adapt, allows us to sustain it and by the end, things do turn in our favour.

If we look back in history of natural calamities, wars and all the manmade and man caused catastrophes, our strong willpower, knowledge and leadership have helped us to survive during those complex and unfavourable situations. We do need to change our education system, thinking process, that instead of focusing on ways to avoid adversity, we need to train ourselves to face adversity in a better way. As every cloud has a silver lining, similarly there is always light of opportunity and hope at the end of the tunnel of adversity.

Opportunity to grab. 

Everyone has problem big or small and it is the attitude and common sense (though not very common) as how you tackle the problem. It is not only your tackling your own problem but equally significant that when need arises, grab that opportunity to help out others in their time of need. The needy could be your family member, your spouse or child or even your close friend. If you take it as a challenge/mission to help the needy, you will develop capability to stay calm, better control of mind/thoughts and make sound and timely decisions. As you go through adversity, you gain great experience of life. Adversity gives you the opportunity to do introspective thinking. In words of wisdom of great leaders/thinkers, “We cannot change the cards we are dealt, but surely we can play the cards wisely. Indeed, resilient leaders find ways to stay calm, bold and speedy in their decision making and action taking

Quick analysis of adverse situation.

·        When you are faced with a difficult and complex situation, start asking yourself the questions to seek good answers:

·        What outcomes do I want out of this situation?

·        Are there others outcomes as well?

·        What are the obstacles in my way from making favourable outcomes happen?

·        How to overcome those obstacles and succeed?

·        Do I need outside help and is it readily available?

Types of Adversity. Adversity can be at various levels of an organisation or at personal level. The scope of this article is limited to adversities at personal / professional level.

a)     Physical Disability. Let us take a situation where a football player falls after collision with opponent player and injures his lower spine. Likewise, it could be a horse rider or rock climber or a skier who has serious fall and consequently, he is stuck in a wheelchair which is a drastic change to the way he lives through balance of his life.  However, there are many examples where such injured people did guided exercises/physiotherapy and improved their health and learnt how to deal with other limitations. There are many determined sportsmen/sportswomen who have recovered fully and came back to resume their sport and even won medals. Some tips to combat such adversities are:

·        Calm down and accept such disability as is a part of life and you are to face it boldly.

·        Don’t curse yourself or anybody for the accident/incident. Instead, learn to live with the adversity without feeling bitter about it.

·        You need to take good care of your health. Regular exercise, a healthy diet and positive thinking are all necessary for doing/feeling good.

·        Look for support groups made up of people going through similar circumstances.  Talking and listening to them will make you comfortable. Keep smiling and cheers up others too.

·        There are services from organizations to help you find a community of individuals who can relate to how you’re feeling.

b) Psychologically Challenged. Like a physically handicapped/disabled person, one can have a mental problem, adversely affecting his/her performance at workplace and relationships within family and friends. This situation could have been caused due to stress or any grave loss/shock. Instead of hiding you problem and keep suffering, you should urgently contact a doctor (psychiatrist and psychologist) to get yourself properly treated. It is very crucial for restoring your mental state, become normal and resume your job. You must confront your problems whole heartedly and stay hopeful that soon you will get past this situation. There are few basic steps you need to take care and get well.

·        Be open to your doctor and work with him/her on adjusting your medications and adding supplements.

·        Be punctual in waking up, exercising and taking your medication at the same times of day. Keep trying different kinds of meditation techniques until you find something that works for you

·        Stay positive and never give up on the idea of getting better. Things can be rough for a while, but there’s always something new you can try to improve your well-being.

·        Be in the company of sympathetic and loyal friends who have positive thinking and supporting attitude

c) Loss of dear ones. Loss of a family member due to an accident or an ailment could be very depressing and painful. Time is a great healer to overcome grief. Try to engage  your mind more on the job and other events like sports. Staying alone will worsen the situation. Therefore get involved with social engagements.

d) Financial Loss. It could be big loss in business or unfair dealing by alliance partner. Some of the suggested steps to sustain during such adversity are:

·        Start part time job or join some business partnership as quickly as possible.

·        Adopt some effective ways to plan your budget and ensure expenditures remain within budget.

·        May take some help from close friends/relatives or even loan from bank to tide over the situation.

·        Track your spending habits and firmly control to stay within budget.

e) Job loss. There could be a sudden loss of job and you can’t manage your life style, family obligation and other social commitments.  You feel crest fallen. Some of the suggested steps to sustain during such adversity are:

·        Learning new skills to match new job requirements.

·        As per the market trend and your need to fill the gap in your CV, join on-line or contact program, which could be a certificate course, diploma or degree program from a well-recognised institute/ organisation.

·        Seek guidance from mentors.

·        Be in touch with your career councillors and update your profile.

·        Seek assistance from friends in home country or abroad.

·        Activate your network but do not announce your job loss to everybody. Be calm and slowly inform your family members as they will appreciate your efforts and standby y during your career crisis.

·        Come out of your comfortable zone and have mental mobility for change of place or job.

 Response during Adversity. Keep in mind that any pain /loss are always a temporary condition and an opportunity to learn. There will be a bright day after dark night; there will be cooling wind after a hot day. Nothing is permanent and rest assured bad time will pass away. During adverse situation, it is a big challenge to overcome obstacles which restricts our progress and happiness. Few basic steps which can help you to stay calm and give better response are:

·        Calm down and focus on your strengths and better understanding of your limitations.

·        We are all human and often tend to get emotional or panic.

·        Look around for sources which can help you to move ahead.

·        Walking in natural surroundings and spending some time alone or even bird watching can cheer you up.

·        Use common sense to solve complex situation.

·        Reading light articles/books or recalling past good events quietly.

·        Thinking alternatives and doing cause and effect analysis.

·        Listening to music or TV program that inspire positive thinking.

·        Doing Meditation or any stress relieving exercises.

·        Interacting with people who have positive attitude and share  with them your worries and thoughts.

·        Seeking guidance from mentors and seniors.

·        Don’t get serious and depressed when an adversity occurs. Look at every challenge with curiosity and humour

·        Share your learning and experience with their friends. Soon you will get fresh idea to deal with adverse situation

·        Sincere prayer seeking God’s help.

For more information you may refer to my books available on  www.amazon.com

1. A2Z – 26 steps for assured success

2. Career challenges during Global Uncertainty

Blog-- https://sarbjit-exchange-knowledge.blogspot.com

Dr Sarbjit Singh, Former Principal Apeejay College of Engineering, Sohna District Gurgaon, Haryana – 122103, India