Overcoming Obstacles
There’s no obstacle that can’t be overcome – the second most important thing that any leader should believe
(click the image above and then right-click it to save or download your copy.)
If you’d like to feel more able to overcome obstacles, and have more confidence that you can tackle anything that life and work throws at you, try working through these easy questions in the order given:
What do you personally mean by “overcoming obstacles”?
What would you see, hear or feel that lets you know you are overcoming obstacles?
When you are overcoming obstacles, what is important to you?
(and write that answer down – I’m going to refer to it as X in the next few questions)
Then answer either both of or whichever of these questions make the most sense:
What enables someone to have X? Or…
What is necessary for there to be X?
And then answer either both of or whichever of these questions make the most sense:
Why is X important? Or…
What does X lead to or make possible?
Write down as much of your answers as you can and keep coming back to them to get a deeper feel for what’s important to you around overcoming obstacles.
If you can, explore these questions with other people too.
It’s a great group exercise too, so if you want to lead a session with your team, have them work through those questions in pairs.
Think back to previous times when you’ve overcome something difficult. How many of the factors I’ve asked about in the questions above were present at that time? What else have you learnt from previous experiences when you overcame obstacles? Also, what might you need to Unlearn?
There’s even more you can do to embed these beliefs and empower yourself, including some of the less transformational but more practical things like, what do I actually need to DO. Have an experiment yourself and go overcome stuff!
I said in the heading that this is only the second most important thing that any leader should believe. That’s because you can’t get anything worthwhile done without overcoming obstacles, BUT even a cast-iron belief in doing so only gets you so far. It’s like repaying a debt. Okay, you clear what’s owed, but having overcome that obstacle, now you’re just back at zero. At square one.
As well as believing they can overcome obstacles, great leaders also believe that they are doing something worthwhile, something that makes a difference. Having overcome obstacles, that belief in making a difference of some kind gets you beyond zero and into plus territory. And that’s where the cool stuff is.
