Every day practices to overcome challenges in life

Life is full of challenges and this quote by Zig Ziglar invites us to consider that ‘it’s not what happens to you that will determine how far you go in life; it is how you handle what happens to you’.

For many of us life can feel hard and exhausting, like you are pushing a heavy bolder uphill and at any moment it could roll backwards causing damage to your efforts of making progress.

Challenges and setbacks can feel all too much and weigh heavy on mental wellbeing and your ability to feel energised, motivated, and happy.

The good news though, is that it doesn’t have to be this way.

There are many simple daily practices that you can do that support a positive mindset and outlook, that help you to look through a life lens of personal empowerment and growth, and that support a felt sense of inner peace and harmony no matter what life gives you.

Sarah Fletcher the author of ‘KISS your Life’ – the CALM guide to keeping your life successfully simple, has worked in the field of personal growth, coaching and Psychotherapy for over 20 years. Her specialist field of Neuro Linguistic Programming is a personal growth methodology rooted in the Science and Psychology of excellence.

The primary focus of this approach is to help people achieve personal and professional success and fulfilment by modifying the way they think, feel, communicate, and behave to bring about inner transformational change.

In her book she shares the successfully simple CALM guide for unlocking inner potential, and self-coaching methods for a life of well-being, success, and happiness.

Create a life you Love

The first principle of the CALM guide is to live with intention. What this means is to consciously create your day and choose how you want to feel, think, and behave. In a world that is fast paced and full of distraction, many people fall into the trap of living every day on autopilot in habits that are not supportive of optimum well-being.

How often do you roll out of bed and consciously choose your day? From the moment you open your eyes do you decide how you are going to bring vibrancy and aliveness to your day? Do you notice your thoughts, feelings, and sensations?

Do you consider how you are going to navigate any challenges in a positive way? Or do you hit the snooze button and start the day in a hurry ready for firefighting the never ending to do list?

How about starting your day with curiosity and wondering how it could be with your mind and body in calm and coherence.  Imagine how different you would experience the day if you decided to bring your awareness to all the things that were going right, rather than what was going wrong. The first simple practice is to CHOOSE your day.

Decide how you want to feel from the moment you open your eyes.

Decide how you want to handle those difficult situations. Choose how you will think about your life and take action towards bringing more joy, contentment and satisfaction to your day.

Awareness to change

The next successfully simple practice is self-awareness. In a busy and noisy world, it can feel difficult to find the quiet and stillness that is necessary for clear thinking, problem solving, dreaming big, tuning into your intuition, decision making and getting clarity on what you want for your life.

The days can roll into each other, and your days off or holidays might be the only time where you can finally breath and take a moment to recalibrate.

This way of living can be a recipe for burnout, stress, and an unhealthy lifestyle. Slowing down and giving yourself the space for quiet and stillness will support you in seeking to understand yourself better, so you can make choices that support the life you want. The simple success strategy for self-awareness invites you to ask yourself ‘what do I want’? How will I know I have it (what will I see, hear and feel’)? How will having this benefit my life? What do I need to do to get it (what are the steps that need to be taken)? What is the first step I will take?

Taking time to be quiet and turn inwards invites a deeper level of self-awareness and makes it easier to bring about change.

Learning and growth

There is no failure only feedback. The third practice for the successfully simple way of living is to approach life with an attitude of learning and to give yourself opportunities to grow. In every challenge there will be something that you can learn about what is important to you and who you want to be.

Each day make a note of things you have learned and how you can use those learning to support your personal growth. This might include forgiving yourself or someone else. It might be that you have realised your emotional strength, or that you can do hard things.

Your brain is wired to adapt, change and learn. You can unlearn unhelpful thinking and behaviour patterns and relearn ones that support a happy, confident, and successful version of you.

Mindset of Excellence

The final principle is maintaining a mindset of excellence.

Particularly challenging your assumptions and limiting beliefs.

Listen to your language and hear the limits that you impose on yourself.

‘I’m not that kind of person’. ‘I won’t be able to’.’ I can’t do ..’ I should do..’ When you notice these limits, challenge yourself with empowering questions such as ‘who says I can’t or ‘how do I know’.

Listen carefully to your life story and change it to one that brings you the success and happiness that you deserve.

If you would like to read more about how to how to apply successfully simple practices every day for positive mental well-being, then grab a copy of Sarah’s book here https://unlockingpossibilities.co.uk/book/

UKCP Psychotherapist -NLP trainer with INLPTA and ANLP -mBIT (multiple brain integration techniques coaching) trainer accredited with mBIT International coaching association with over 3500 trained coaches. – BSc Hons Psychology – PGCE post grad cert in Education