Five Ways To Face And Overcome Challenges

Challenges are those things that we face whether they are voluntary or involuntary.  Most of us have faced or had to deal with challenges like having to figure out how a bill is going to be paid after a job loss, or how you are going to go from point A to point B when your car has broken down.

Then there are those challenges that we make ourselves like losing weight, improving our business, or obtaining an educational degree.

Whatever the challenge, I am going to share with you five ways that will help you to face and overcome those challenges.

1.  Decide that you will win and be victorious.

There are times when you’re faced with a challenge, you may want to give up before you even attempt it. But in order to overcome the challenge whatever it may be, you must first decide that you are willing to face it then tell yourself you can overcome it and you will be victorious.

2.  Get Some Energy

Sometimes facing challenges can deplete your energy.  I can attest to that.  Sometimes a challenge can seem so great that it may tend to make you feel like you need to put it off until another time.  What helped me muster up energy to face  some of my challenges is exercise.  That’s right, exercise. I have found that when I took the time to work out,  I had more energy and this motivated me to start and complete my challenge

3.  Take One Bite At A Time

Take one bite at a time. It sounds simple enough but you’d be surprise at the fact that some people try handle large task and challenge in extremely short periods of time causing them to be frustrated. Sometimes we want to tackle things head on and all at once. But try taking small steps; do one thing at a time.  Some people like to do the easiest part of a task first saving the hardest for last and some like to do just the opposite.

4.  Write It Down

Write things down. Write down your challenges.  Write down what you want to accomplish and when or  the time period that you want to complete or overcome your challenge.  Write down how you intend to face or approach your challenge, what you need to do and how you feel about your challenge.  Writing things down helps you see and remember what needs to be done, it reminds you of what you to focus on.

Also write down your activity during the challenge. This will help you see where you are and how close you are to getting things accomplished.  Writing things down as you go along will also help you spot problem areas that you may need to work harder on. This can give you different ways and ideas to tackle your challenges.

5.  Know Yourself

One of the big things in facing challenges is knowing yourself and you limitations. You cannot face or tackle a challenge like the next person can. 

I heard about a guy who set a challenge for himself in his business. He would stay up day and night getting little to no sleep for several months.  He wanted to not only prove to himself that he could do it but he was on a determined mission.  Though it took him a little longer than he had planned, He eventually quit his job, but he not only sacrificed his health by not getting proper rest but he sacrificed time with family, and days off from work. He ultimately had domestic problems which he was able to work out slowly.

Not everyone can do this and quite frankly it would be an unhealthy choice on many levels to do so. This is why it is so important to know yourself and your limitations, know and understand what you are and are not willing to sacrifice.

Challenges, no matter how hard they are can be faced with the right mind set, proper planning, and the right motivation.

Hopefully, whatever your problems or challenges you maybe facing something I’ve shared here will be able to help you.

Enjoy Happiness

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re You Happy? What is it in your life that would make you happy?  Do you embrace inner happiness? What is it that would make your life more fulfilling? How we feel about ourselves can determine how long we live.

As you go about your daily life you will notice people who seem very pleasant in public but behind closed doors they are living in hell within themselves. What is holding you back from your happiness? Are you struggling with unhappiness, sadness, inner turmoil? These things may come from unhappy or unhealthy relationships, a job that is disliked, unfavorable circumstances, and some people just don't know why they are unhappy.

How can you be happy?  What can you do to find the happiness that you deserve? 

In this article, I am going to share with you ways that you can find happiness, and make the most out of every day.

Happiness is decided ahead of time.

When you wake up in the morning, do you get up dreading the day ahead?  If so, begin changing this habit.
Make up your mind to have a great day. Make up your mind that you are going to have a day of victory.

 
•    Thank God that you are alive
•    Start the day off in a grateful attitude
•    Count your blessings
•    Declare that "this is going to be a great day"

Be Grateful

Being grateful is one of the keys to living a happy life.  Instead of complaining about what you don’t have be grateful for what you do have.  Being grateful can turn around relationships, save marriages, and even save jobs.

•    Express gratitude on your job (be thankful for your job and think about the people that are unemployed , instead of complaining about to work load, be thankful for

the extra work that would allow you to stay employed,
•    Don’t take your health for granted
•    Make it a point to make everyday a special day


Find something positive to be thankful for.  Don’t take life for granted. I heard a story from a young man I went to school with who was in a terrible accident in which his car caught fire.  He was trapped inside and no one was able to get him out; the rescue and paramedics had not come yet.   As people stood around this young man said that two people in white came and got him out.   Later after the rescue and paramedics team came, he asked for the two men who pulled him out of the car, no one saw these two men or who they were, but neither could anyone tell how he had gotten out of the car.  He is grateful everyday for life, as that day could have been his last day.
We need to realize life is very short. Tell your loved ones that you love them every day; give them a hug every day.

On the gloomiest day just remember that just above those clouds the sun is shining.

Be Positive

If you found out you only had a few weeks to live would you live it being unhappy, upset, holding grudges?
Our mind naturally wants to think about unhappy and negative things but you have to change your focus.  But you must stop focusing on the negative, and realize that every day is a gift from God. Look at what is right instead of what is wrong.

Decide how you are going to live. Sometime we are not grateful for something until it is or almost taken away from us.  My mom used to always say “you never miss your water until your well runs dry”.

Yes, it may be hard to stay focused or positive when things are going wrong, when we lose our jobs, when death happens. But we must work at train our mind to see the good and condition ourselves to focus on the positive.

Circumstances may change the way you feel but it doesn’t

have to change your mind. Don't let a few clouds sour your life.  Life is full of difficulties and adversities but keep your head up. It is natural by human nature to be discouraged but the bible says "count it all joy when you fall in to various temptations ".

If you don’t feel like you have the strength to go through, ask God to give you strength and help you to keep a good attitude. When you face disappointments, your feelings will get in the way and tell you that you won't make it but don’t believe your feelings. Talk back to those negative thoughts and replace them with positive declarations of faith by saying " it will be a great day, God has favor in my future, My trust is in the Lord because I know He cares for me, I will not be defeated, my hope is in the Lord"

Claiming God's Promises

Are you claiming the promises of God? Or are you just basking in the sun and waiting for the next wind to blow? There are several reasons why God's people are not prospering. Here are five:

1. SIN - When your life is full of sin and disrespect for God, the confidence you should have is not there. You lose your confidence. Like a child who had done wrong and becomes very hesitant about asking his parents if he could have a treat or go out to play. Sin causing us to go on a guilt trip when we done wrong and know it it wrong but we decide to continue in it. (Just one more time)

2.UNBELIEF. There is a saying, "If you pray don't worry, and if you worry why pray". God wants us to be blessed and too many of us don't believe that. God does not want us living in poverty. I have heard people say things like "God can't bless people with a lot of money", or "Money is the root of all evil". I have even heard a lady say "God wants me right here where I am" so she doesn't try to do any better than where she is.

3.POOR MENTALITY. Some people have a poverty mentality. They either grew up poor and thinking that it's ok or they have had a really bad experience with finances. People with a poverty mentality are always concern about how much "it" cost. Always buying something using it then returning it for a refund. Always looking for that hookup or free item. Don't get me wrong, It is okay to love the sales racks but learn to treat yourself without the worries sometimes. Stop turning down something expensive when God has blessed someone else to give it to you.

4. FEAR OF GIVING. Sometimes people will look at what they have, it may not be a lot, but there is someone who really needs it but they are so tight that they will hold on to it instead of helping the person in need; or we don't honor God when we hold back on our tithes and offerings. Faith comes into play when we replace fear with Faith. Give in Faith inspite of what it looks like. Let this be your year of Great Grace! Don't allow the enemy to keep you from what God has meant to be yours.

Claim the Promises of God!

Here are some of the Promises that God has given us: When you pray, claim God's Promises specifically in prayer:

Hebrews 13:5b
"... for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."

Isaiah 41:10
" Fear thou not; ... I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness."

Phillipians 4:19
"But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus".

Romans 8:28
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."

Don't stop here.  Get your bible and find other promises God has made to us and claim them when you pray according to his Word.

Faith

There is a book entitled, " If you want to walk on water You've Got to get out of the Boat" by John Ortberg. I am in the process of reading this book. and I have been so enlightened by the emphasis on obedience and faith. Directly and indirectly.

Sometimes in life you have got to realize that many of us are not even close to success because of fear of stepping out of the boat. That boat could be anything, it could be your friends, situations, jobs, or even our own mindset.

In a lot of cases,  your friends are the reason you  haven't decided to make the decision to do something different in order achieve the results and the success you desire. You may share your success desires with your friends and because of their mentality, they shoot you down telling you that you can't do it or you're not smart enough, or you don't have what it takes.  You can't always tell people what your personal desires are because they are so common with you that it is easy for them to plant a seed of doubt in your heart.

Situations that you may have experienced can cause you not to pursue your dream. People have been programmed by their past to believe that getting ahead is not for them.  They may have grown up around people who were always broke or always giving up and it became a part of their lives, so they put up a brick wall which prevents them from stepping out of that boat; stepping out of that comfort zone.

Some people get so caught up on the deadend job that they have that they are afraid to pursue anything else.  But yet they sit there and complain that they don't make enough money.

Stepping out of the boat requires obedience and faith. The obedience to do what God has told you in your heart, and the faith to believe God will see you through it.

You can do all things through Christ who gives you strength -- Philippians 4 :19

If you'd like to get a copy of this book click below.

--Ruth

Being More Appreciative

Have you ever been around someone who constantly complained about everything? Someone who had something negative to say about everything no matter what is was and if it was something that they did or didn’t do , they complained that someone else should have taken care of it?

People who are always complaining will never be happy. Self-centered people will always have something to complain about.

I experienced a dream last night of myself trying to help someone that I know. They had somehow fallen over a cliff. I had to make a choice to forget about myself and risk my life to help save theirs or just let them fall. I made the choice to save their life. I had found a long thick rope and handed it to her. Immediately before she even grabbed the rope she started complaining that the rope was too big that she wouldn’t be able to grab hold of it.  But it was the only rope available. Her next complaint was “why are you not pulling me up?”  Well actually I was pulling her up but she was so focused on herself that she didn’t realize it.

In the dream, I continued to pull her up and in the process nearly going over the cliff my self. The skin on my hands had peeled off and they were bleeding profusely; but she continued to complain. When I finally pulled her to safety, she had no thank you’s but complained that I pulled her up to hard and her wrists were hurting.

Many people today are just like the girl in the dream; unappreciative, complainers, whiners, unthankful, ungrateful. But how do you deal with such folk? For me it’s hard to say because I enjoy helping others and seeing them overcome whatever it is whether they are thankful or not.

The best thing to do is represent Christ in your dealings with them. Jude 22-23 tells us that it is important to exercise our faith serving others, even when there maybe danger involved. We are to demonstrate God’s love for the fallen and share the gospel with the lost.

I have had personal experiences with making sacrifices to help people and all they did was complain: “this is not pulled together” “that’s not on right” “put this like that” “this is not cleaned right”, the list goes on and on.  In reality if people don’t like how you do a thing for them, they should do it themselves.  I have also come to realize that you can’t make everyone happy no matter how well you do something or no matter what sacrifices you make to help them.  These kind of people are usually self-centered and only care about their own happiness.  They will never find true happiness unless they come to Christ.  But nevertheless, we must strive to live the Christ example and be a light in spite of.

Philippians 2:3-4 (NIV) ³ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴ not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

The Consequences Of Decisions

Deciding what to wear, or what to eat, or evening what time to go to bed are not all that hard to do. But there are decisions that require more thought; life-changing decisions, those that may cause you to struggle if you are not careful.  Many unwise choices are made because we more too quickly, or because of our emotions.

When facing a big decision sometimes we need to listen to that inner gut; in a lot a cases this will hint at us and let us know that we may need to rethink before we give ourselves a green flag.
The best way to really determine the basis for making a good decision is to do it through the wisdom of God.  This wisdom is acquired through God's Word, and allowing His spirit to lead you.

We must consistently keep our minds renewed through prayer and God's word. Good wisdom also comes through people of God as He uses them to help those who desire His wisdom.

Esau made a decision to give up his birthright to Jacob because he was so hungry.  He didn't think about the life long effect it would have throughout his life. He hastily made this decision out of a need. (Genesis25:29-34)

Every decision we make in life should be taken seriously because what we decide to do can have major consequences in our lives.

Through disobedience, Adam and Eve decided to partake of the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden and what happen?  They were banished from the garden and their decision affected everyone.

Moses made the decision to chose God and became the leader of a great nation.  Paul chose to repent and he became the Apostle to the Gentiles.

So you've made some decision that have had some dramatic affects on you and your family. There is still hope. God is a God of hope and He does forgive; however, in some cases we still have to deal with the consequences of our decisions. But from this point forward better decisions are to be made. Focus on God and His promises and not on the problems and circumstances.

If I knew then what I know now there are some decisions I would have chosen differently, wouldn't you?

We Need A Resolution

Times are not like they used to be.  I remember as a child my friends and I would fight one day and be friends again before the sun went down or at least by the next day and our parents never had to get involved.  I also remember that sometimes we would take out anger out on each other by dancing or racing down the street, and whoever won, well they just won.

In today’s society our young people fight with weapons and parents also get involved and want to fight other children as I have seen several news reports about parents jumping kids after school and on school buses.

It has become very challenging for parents to deal with many of our youth today because society has come up with so many rules of what parents can or cannot do to their children.  Prayer was taken out of schools, and then parents aren’t allowed to spank their kids.  What’s next?

I am reminded of a story of a young girl who had been threatened by some other kids who wanted to fight her.  This young girl (we’ll call her Shelley), had obviously become very upset by this.  Another young girl (we’ll call her Carla) who had no idea what was going on and had nothing to do with the incident,  as Carla past by her, she saw that she was upset and attempted to console her.  “Are you okay?” Carla asked.  Shelley, still mad jumps up and began to curse at Carla and threatened her.  Carla, stepped back, apologized for being concerned, and walked away.  Several minutes later Shelley’s mom and brother had arrived. Shelley pointed at Carla as one of the girls who had threatened to fight her; Carla was astounded. She had no idea what had just happened.  Shelley’s mom had threatened Carla and told her that they could settle the matter outside in the parking lot.  “I’m not sure what is going on” Carla stated to Shelley’s mom, “I saw her upset, and asked her if she was okay”. At this point Carla found out what really happened and so did Shelley’s mom.  Other adults got involved and the issue was resolved. 

The reaction of Shelley’s mom is clearly one of the reasons our youth are involved in so much violent activity.  Sometimes the parents are to blame.  Now I am not saying that all negative acts of children are the parents fault but in this situation the parent was clearly ready to fight a child; and for what? Shelley’s mom is a prime example of how parents are lacking in parental guidance and education.  She obviously did not think about the fact that if she had harmed this child she would have gone to jail, her children would have been displaced, she most likely would have lost her job, and she would now have a criminal record.  It is obvious that Shelley is not use to someone looking out for her and consoling her when she feels bad. It seems that she has been taught that when you’re angry, take it out on everyone.

Parents need to instill better conflict resolutions in their children.

Let’s teach our children more respect not only for others but for themselves. If they don’t respect themselves, no one else will.

Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

Ephesians 6:4  “. . .provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord”