To overcome obstacles successfully you need to develop a creative way of thinking and doing things that may be foreign to many people. With the proper mindset and skill set almost any obstacle can be successfully overcome in life, business, and relationships.

However, if you happen to be one of those people who glide easily through life and always get what they want with no resistance, obstacles or effort, then this article is NOT for you.

On the other hand, if you’re one of us normal people who have found yourself STUCK (Check out this previous post about how to get unstuck) by forces and factors that hold you back from getting what you want, you’re in the right place at the right time.

It’s kind of like a travel brochure; getting to the destination is never quite as glamorous or easy as the brochure makes it seem.

When it comes to getting what you want, being who you want to be, and doing what you want, there are many times that obstacles prevent progress. Some are routine and can be handled with very little effort.

Others can be overwhelming and even paralyzing.

As Frank A. Clark said, “If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.” If you’re not facing any obstacles in life right now, you’re probably not going anywhere.

*Special Note: There’s a unique and powerful technique I’ve come to call, “The Intention Question.” When used properly it’s a formidable tool for solving problems and overcoming obstacles. As my gift to you I’ve created a free, short PDF explaining how it works. Click Here to claim your free copy.

The first question is, “What’s the definition of an obstacle?”

My definition of an obstacle is, “A perceived limitation to achieving a desired outcome.” What do you think? Do you have a different definition?

It’s your perceptions and interpretations that determine what you identify as an obstacle and how you respond to them.

In my work with literally thousands of clients over the years I’ve noticed that the top 3 obstacles for most people when it comes to achieving a great goal are:
1. Lack of clarity,
2. Fear of failure, and,
3. Fear of success.

Here are some thoughts:

1. It’s a known fact about how the human mind works, how the quantum field works, and how the law of faith works, the more clear you are about what you want, the more likely you are to have it.

Being clear about who you are, what you want, and where you’re going is essential to achieving the life you’d love. It also seems to be one of the most challenging steps.

Each coach I’ve every worked with has worked with me on that step repeatedly, more than any other. The more clear I am, the better my results in life and business.

2. The obstacle of fear of failure is very common. But, what does it really mean? It seems to imply that failing is inevitable and to be avoided at all cost.

I like to remind clients about what they went through when they learned how to walk, talk, and write their name. The failed repeatedly. It was a natural part of their learning curve.

Unfortunately, just reminding them of that wasn’t enough to inspire most of them forward. The concept of failure is too loaded for so many people.

3. Yes, believe it or not, many people are afraid of success. They’ve grown to kind of like their cozy little Hobbit Hole where, as Teddy Roosevelt is to have said, “They live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”

Being successful means they’ll be living outside the safety net. There would be more personal responsibility. They’ll also be an easier target for criticism and rejection.

The desire for them to achieve their goal must be greater than their fear.

The next question is, “How do you breakthrough to the other side?”

What does it mean to overcome an obstacle? How do you overcome obstacles at work? How do you overcome obstacles in life?

“There is no breakthrough without follow through.”
Unknown

Watch this important video about the power of follow through and what follow through really means:

What obstacles are you contending with now? Make a list. Accurately defining a problem is the first step in solving a problem.

Write out a list of as many as your mind can notice. Notice a pattern?

There are essentially two basic outcome potentials with obstacles:

• The obstacle can keep you from getting what you want, doing what you want, or being who you want. Or,
• The obstacle can be overcome and you can arrive at your destination quite successfully.

“Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust.”
Zig Ziglar

It’s kind of like the old bumper sticker that said, “There are two kinds of people. Those who divide people into two kinds of people and those who don’t.”

Regardless of how many types of obstacles there are, it’s all about how you respond to the obstacle that matters most.

More generally speaking, it seems to me that there are 3 basic categories of obstacles: Innies, Outies, and General Stress.

A. Innies are the inner obstacles. They’re probably the ones we struggle with the most. They’re the limiting beliefs and negative emotions.

Limiting beliefs such as, “This will never work,” “Only rotten people make money,” “If I gain something good, then something bad will happen to wipe it out,” “I might fail,” “I’m unworthy,” and so on. Negative emotions such as fear (Click to learn more), dread, depression, overwhelm, paranoia.

B. Outies are the external obstacles. Examples such as other people’s discouragement or lack of support, not enough time, not enough money, the weather, boulders in the road.

Your customer may potentially have no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, or no trust as Zig Ziglar pointed out. I’m given to understand that Mr. Ziglar was never held back by that.

For example, they may have no hurry, because you haven’t pointed out to them a reason to hurry. Reasons that may never have occurred to them because they were too blissfully focused on not much of anything.

C. General stress is all about the effect that the accumulation of stress can have over time. When overly stressed your mind has a harder time focusing, you tend to forget things, it becomes difficult to sleep. As stress increases even more it can result in illnesses and even death.

Knowing which category you’re dealing with increases your power to change the game completely. Start with deciding which category it’s in. Then, narrow it down as specifically as you can from there.

“How you do anything is how you do everything.”
Unknown

Probably the most important element in handling any obstacle is your own personal response to the obstacle.

Do you tend to avoid? Some individuals pretend like the obstacle’s not actually there. Maybe when they wake up from a long nap it won’t be there. Maybe it’ll go away on it’s own. Maybe I’m just imagining it in the first place.

Are you a bull in a china shop? Some people choose to go in swinging or have both guns blazing away at an obstacle. There are two problems with this; A. Most of the time they’re blazing away at the wrong obstacle. B. What they resist, persists.

Both avoiders and blazers discover what some have called,”The Problem Solution.” The Problem Solution means that “the very solution they’ve come up with to solve a problem has only served to create a whole new set of problems.”

The problem is resistance. Both people and animals tend to resist change, even if it’s change from bad to good.

Obstacles represent resistance to achieving your goal. How you respond to the resistance determines the outcome.

What would you say is your own, personal, typical way of responding to an obstacle? Small ones might not be too big a deal, but what about the big ones?

Do you become anxious, angry, hopeless, overwhelmed? Are you an avoider or a blazer?

What you focus on, you get more of. What you resist, persists.

“Obstacles are necessary for success because in selling, as in all careers of importance, victory comes only after many struggles and countless defeats.”
Og Mandino

What are the keys to breaking through any obstacle?

1. Be clear about defining what obstacle you’re facing. “Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.” (Henry Ford)
2. Choose an effective strategy based on the type of obstacle. a. If it’s an innie, identify the limiting belief and replace it with an overcoming belief.
3. Identify the negative emotion and replace it with a positive emotion. b. If it’s an Outie, specifically identify what it is. Is it a boulder? Other people? Lack of time?
4. Clarify what you could achieve if this obstacle wasn’t holding you back. What would you experience on the other side? Be very, very, clear. Or, “Be vewy, vewy, kwea-ew.” Elmer Fudd.
5. Maintain your new focus until you arrive on the other side at your destination.
   Consider an alternative strategy.

Alternative Strategies:

A. Increase clarity about your goal. Be able to feel it and taste it. Raise your sense of priority about achieving it to the highest level in your mind. If it was the most important thing in the world for you to achieve, what would you do differently?

Whatever you focus on you get more of. If you’re obsessed with the obstacle to the exclusion of the goal, you’ll get more resistance to overcoming the obstacle. You’ll get more obstacle.

When you focus clearly on the goal, your highly creative unconscious mind will begin formulating solutions that would blow your conscious mind away.

On a personal note, I’ve played around with simply visualizing the obstacle turning to dust. Then I zero in on as clear an image of my goal as I can muster. The majority of the time, the obstacle actually vanishes in the real world.

What I take from that is that it was my own internal resistance that created the obstacle in the first place. It wasn’t the economy, other people, lack of resources. It was me.

When I shifted into Goal Achieving, Obstacle Dissolving mode, I moved forward exponentially and the obstacle was nowhere to be found.

B. Identify the smallest step possible that you can take today to achieve your goal, regardless of the obstacle.

Just ask yourself, “What’s the smallest step I can take before 7 PM today that will move me forward to my goal, regardless of any obstacle?” Whatever the answer is, DO IT.

One year I had a coaching client from Canada who had been stuck for five years in her ability to get back to being a painter. She had been to a therapist for a couple of years and still was stuck.

She described her block as a very high, cement fence. It was many feet thick. It extended forever in both directions. It went deep into the ground. It was impenetrable.

I asked her, “What’s the smallest step you could possibly take to get through the wall?” She said that it would be to lay out her painting tarp.

That became her assignment. She agreed to lay out her tarp before the next visit.

On our next call she said she laid out the tarp and immediately began painting! She’d been paining for 5 days! She hadn’t even been in that room for 5 years!

One, small, step.

C. Ask yourself the intention question. The intention question is one of the most powerful questions in the universe that you can ask to overcome almost ANY obstacle or solve almost ANY problem.

Rather than taking up more space in this article I’ve created a free PDF:

“Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.”
John Quincy Adams

Let me know what you think. Drop me an email at johnmason@dayjobtodreamjob.com or post a comment at John Mason Coaching on Facebook.

John Mason