How to overcome ANY Negative Circumstance
You don’t want an ordinary life. Working a job you hate, putting up with a passionless career and having to compromise your individuality is not for you. To paraphrase Theodore Roosevelt, you don’t want to be, ‘one of those cold and timid souls who live in the grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.’
Instead, you want something extraordinary. You want excitement, inspiration and the chance to leave a positive mark on the world. You want to answer that immortal Steve Jobs quote – If today was my last day, would I want to do what I’m about to do? – in the affirmative.
And that’s great. You should be congratulated on your ambitions. The world needs unreasonable people like you to keep it moving forwards.
But how do you get there? How do you go from your present reality which, let’s face it, might appear light-years away from your musings, to this life of your dreams?
It doesn’t matter whether it’s a boring job that saps you of your time and energy, poor health that robs you of the vitality needed to put your plans into action or a lack of connections and contacts that leaves you feeling clueless about where to start, there IS a way out of ANY negative circumstance.
The proceeding plan will show you how.
Step 1: Raise your Energy
The problem with the three negative circumstances listed above is that they rob you of energy. The dreams in your mind may be golden but when your daily environment is depressing, physically painful or seems helpless, a huge disconnect occurs.
This is why it is SO IMPORTANT to develop the ability to detach from your circumstances and focus on your energy. You can’t remain at the same level of thinking and feeling as your present environment. To advance, you always need to be one vibrational level above. To do this, you must detach your mind (i.e. not focus on/let go of) from all the petty arguments at work, minor and major injustices against you, aches and pains in your body, all the things you lack and perceived obstacles standing in your way.
This, in itself, is a monumental mental discipline. However, once you have mastered it you’ll be free to, in the words of Master Yoda, ‘feel The Force’. What I mean by this is that you must find time to focus on the magnificence of your dream. Ask yourself this question.
What’s going to feel so great about living the life I want to live?
Capture the energy of this answer and focus on it as much as possible. Do this consistently, and your drive will be stronger, the strength of your immune system will increase, your ability to convince other people of your ideas will improve and your life will begin to move forwards.
Step 2: Find Proof
Overcoming your negative circumstances and living the life you want is largely a game of belief. Everybody has the potential to do it, but many remain trapped because they can’t believe in a life better than their day to day environment.
To rise above your present circumstances you need to KNOW that it’s possible. In other words, you need proof. You need concrete examples of the fact that you can positively move your life forwards despite the negative circumstances you face. This is why I instruct everybody to record ALL the positive results they achieve. If they get a new client, win an important match, gain a promotion or receive a compliment about their work or personality then they have to make note of it in a designated ‘results’ diary.
The power of this practise is compound. A month’s worth of positive results doesn’t do a lot but a years’ worth of achievements sends a message to the subconscious. ‘I CAN DO THIS,’ is what you start to believe. After all, you’ve got the proof right there in your diary.
Then, it just becomes a case of repeating a formula. Raise your energy, record your results and, as your life begins to improve, you’ll be left with the belief that NO circumstance has the power to halt your progress. After all, if you can overcome one set of difficult circumstances then why not another?
Step 3: Create a Meaning
I want to give you an example. I want to show you that no negative circumstance, in of itself, has the power to prevent you from moving your life forwards. To do this, I need to find a person who endured the most harrowing of conditions yet still managed to emerge triumphant.
Enter Victor Frankl.
You are not familiar with Frankl, here is his story.
Frankl was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp in 1942. A doctor and psychologist before the war, he found himself thrown into an environment where suffering and death were an everyday occurrence. A starvation diet combined with hard physical labour, unhygienic conditions, frequent exposure to sub-zero temperatures, sleep deprivation and beatings at the hands of guards comprised the daily environment Frankl lived in for 3 years. Every single member of his immediate family died, as did countless numbers of his fellow detainees. Faced with such conditions, Frankl estimated his own chance of survival as 1 in 20.
Despite these terrible circumstances, though, Frankl did survive. Not only that, he thrived. He went on to write a 9 million copy selling book, speak around the world and have his own approach to therapy – logo therapy – become a universally recognised form of treatment.
How was this possible?
According to Frankl the secret to overcoming any negative circumstance is to create a meaning for your life. There are 3 ways of doing this.
- Through love. Forming loving relationships that make your life worthwhile.
- Through work. Having a dream or project that inspires you more than your negative circumstances drain you.
- Through struggle. Even if there is little in your daily environment to rejoice about you can still take pride in the way you react to your situation by maintaining your dignity and keeping a positive outlook.
Creating a meaning through one, or all, of these channels means that you wake up every day with a sense of purpose.
In effect, you are on a mission. Irrespective of what you’re going through, you know what you are moving towards. With such a mentality and approach, when the opportunity to improve your day to day life finally emerges, you’ll seize it with both hands.
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