How to Overcome Challenges in Your Life

When was the last time you felt challenged? Did a task overwhelm you? Were you faced with a personal issue you felt unprepared to handle? Nonetheless, you overcame it, right? Reflecting back I bet it did not seem so huge.

Recently I took a ride on a submarine. Not one at Disneyland but a United States Navy submarine. Two weeks before I stepped aboard I started having trouble sleeping, got lower back pain, and had anxiety at the thought of being underwater with no escape. I convinced myself I was unprepared.

While talking with a couple of experienced submariners, I realized the challenge in life is to overcome the difference between what we need to do and our ability, actual or perceived, to handle it.

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Many problems are daunting because we have not intentionally examined our skills. We feel inadequate or unprepared when in fact the gap may be small. The sinking feeling in our stomachs demotivates us from taking action, the aches and pains distract us. We have to have a plan for determining our capacity for handling a situation. Here's how:

Learn as much as you can about the task or issue. Ask people who have done it to share their experiences and insight. Which parts were easy for them? With which aspects did they struggle? What did they do to prevail?

Make a list of the required skills. For simple tasks, you can do this in your head. For more complex matters, you may need to write them down. Be as specific as possible.

Think about past experiences in which you used any of these skills. What you did may be different but if you used a listed skill this is evidence that you may be more prepared than you think.

Identify the skills you lack. Once you know which skills you do not have you can become proficient in them as part of completing the task.

Following these steps, my anxiety at being on a submarine subsided. When I heard the dive bell I did not feel the least bit uncomfortable. Reflecting back on the last couple of days as I sit in the crew’s mess writing this post, this has been a fantastic experience. Earlier a sailor asked me if I thought I could stand a lengthy deployment. My answer surprised me: I told him no . . . because it would be boring.

Question – Is it better not to try a daunting task rather than attempt it unprepared?
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