3 Ways to Overcome Obstacles to Goals
How often to we set an exciting goal only to be stopped by an insurmountable obstacle? On today’s podcast, Tamara K. Anderson shares 3 ways we can overcome these obstacles that prevent us from reaching our goals.
3 Ways to Overcome Obstacles
Brainstorm about your biggest obstacles and visualize how you can overcome them successfully.
Pray for help to overcome your obstacle. Sometimes you need to change what you are asking, and maybe ask God to help you find people to help you reach your goal.
Overcome Fear through journaling about your WHY?
Here is the transcript to today’s episode:
0:02
Have you ever started a goal and then gotten stuck when an obstacle seemed to be stopping you from accomplishing that goal? Well, if you've ever felt that way, you are not alone. Today I'm going to give you three tips on how to overcome those obstacles and still accomplish your goals. Stay tuned.
0:30
Welcome to stories of hope in hard times, the show that explores how people endure and even thrive in difficult times. All with God's help. I'm your host Tamara K Anderson. Join me on a journey to find inspiring stories of hope and wisdom learned in life's hardest moments.
0:55
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Tamara's takeaways from the stories of hope in hard times podcast. I'm your host, Tamara K. Anderson. And today we're going to talk a little bit about goals. Now I know everybody talks about goals, it's January, we're supposed to be setting goals for the year.
1:14
But what happens when you set those goals, you write them down, just like everybody says, and then you start working on them and you feel like you reach a dead halt? Maybe you set a goal where you're going to get up every morning and you're going to go workout at the gym, or you're going to exercise in your house or, and you just can't seem to pull yourself out of bed? What do you do? So just know you're not alone when you have those things that seem to come up and stop you. And that is just part of life. And hitting these obstacles is part of our journey.
1:56
And so the trick is, and this is what I'm going to teach you today, the trick is learning how to avoid or even overcome the obstacles you're going to face when you set a goal. So let me give you the first tip that I want to share with you. Most of the time when people write their goals down, they they just set the goal. And they say I am going to exercise three days a week or five days a week. And then they think, Okay, I'm going to do it in the morning. But they don't stop at that point and brainstorm about the obstacles that could come up that would prevent them from exercising in the morning.
2:45
So one of the key tips that I can share with you is once you set a goal to brainstorm the top things that are going to prevent you from accomplishing that goal. For example, if you stay up late the night before, that's going to prevent you from getting up early the next day. Researcher Patrick Wanis did a study on goal setting and kind of hopes role and effective principles behind setting and achieving goals. And one of the things he talked about was that it's important to know that if you run from the biggest obstacle that you're going to face, you'll most likely give up on your goal when you hit that obstacle. Versus he gives the tip that we need to visualize overcoming that obstacle that we know is probably going to come up. And when you see yourself--even in your brain--overcoming that obstacle, you'll be more motivated to persevere towards the end of your goal. And you believe that you can overcome it, that you can get over that wall that you feel is in front of you.
3:59
Let me give you an example of this. One of the goals that I have set for this 2021 year is to kind of release some of the weight that I have put on in the last year because of COVID and all the stress that we've been through. And so I've had to kind of visualize, okay, what's going to happen when I go out to eat, and I order something? Will I get the drink and so the easiest solution to lowering my calorie count is to not get a drink or if I get a drink, don't get a refill. So there are certain ways you can start brainstorming. Okay, if I do this, then here's ways that I can still stay true to my goal. So the first tip is brainstorm your obstacle and visualize how you're going to get around that obstacle and visualize yourself being successful.
5:00
If your goal is to get up early and exercise, maybe you visualize yourself jumping out of bed when your alarm goes off, and immediately getting up. And as you go to bed at night visualize, okay, tomorrow morning, I'm going to get up, I'm going to exercise, I'm going to feel good because I exercise. So visualize yourself with a positive outcome. And the cool thing about visualizing yourself overcoming these challenges, these obstacles that come in our way, is that as we are successful and overcome these obstacles, our hope actually increases. It's a really, really cool concept.
5:43
Okay, tip number two, sometimes, we set a goal, and we have an obstacle that comes in our way. And we do not know how to solve that challenge that's right in front of us. And what do you do then? What if you, you can't figure out a way or you've tried several different strategies, and none of them work? Here's my tip for you. Pray, and ask God to help you know, or learn how to overcome that obstacle.
6:15
Now, I'm going to take you back to a time in my life when I had a goal and I knew that God wanted me to do this goal. And I had tried and tried, actually, for a couple of years to get going on this, but I didn't have the skills or the knowledge on how to do it.
6:33
And so finally, I had to pray, I had to change my prayer a little bit and ask God to help me to find the people to help me achieve that goal. Because I knew I wasn't capable. I tried and tried and tried. And I knew I needed people to help me along that path. And so I prayed, I just slightly changed my prayer helped me to find the people that will help me reach this goal.
7:03
And I will tell you, it was a miracle. I found people that helped me reach that goal. And that has actually been repeated several times in my life when I've set very, very big goals.
7:14
It happened again, when I wrote my book normal for me, I took my goal to God, I'd gotten my manuscript ready, I knew it needed help. And I tried to find an editor or developmental editor to help me. I wasn't having much success. And I turned it back to God. I said, Okay, I need you to help open the door here, I need you to help me find people to help you with this goal, because I'm failing on my own and searching for people online is just not working out very well for me.
7:44
And so He dropped the most perfect thing in my lap when I went to a Premier Author Training with Richard Paul Evans. Now I ended up meeting people that helped me reach my goal at that seminar.
8:00
Anyway, so this is possible, it's possible to take obstacles that you have tried and tried and tried to overcome, give them to God, and let him work that miracle in your life. And maybe you just need to slightly change your prayer and ask the right question.
8:19
In Psalms Chapter 32:8, it says, "I will instruct thee and teach the in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide the with mine eye." And I know that's true. I know that God can help us overcome obstacles that we just have no idea how to get through or get by. And maybe we just need a little help. We're here to help each other.
8:43
Okay, so we've got tip number one, which was brainstorm, and and problem solve your biggest obstacles. Number two, pray for help. And number three is a biggie, we're going to talk about fear.
8:56
Fear is probably one of the largest obstacles we face when we're setting brave new goals. Because often brave new goals, push us to do things that we aren't comfortable doing on our own. And fear is a huge, huge obstacle.
9:21
When I was getting ready to start this podcast, I worked and worked and worked on it for almost a year. I'm not kidding you. It was a long time. And as I was getting ready to launch the podcast, I realized that I was scared to death to actually start podcasting to put the podcast up on the air. It scared me. And, and I couldn't get past it. I prayed about it. I'd done so many things. And I realized I needed a different strategy. And so this is the strategy that I want to share with you,
10:01
First of all, I did journal a little bit, which I highly recommend if you're facing a fear write about it, cuz you'll be surprised what comes out. But another thing that you can do to overcome your fear is to write about your Why. Write Why you want to achieve that goal. Because often when we we have that fear, it's like a giant wall in front of us, and we can't go through it, we can't go around it. And we're paralyzed, we just can't seem to move past it.
10:37
And what I learned is that when we're faced with that, we need to focus on the why the reason why we want to do it. Which for me was I wanted to be able to give people who were feeling hopeless stories to motivate and inspire and help move them forward--Thinking that as I interviewed people with different challenges, from paralysis to autism to breast cancer, or something like that, that hearing their stories would help people who are in the depths of despair, or just people who want to be motivated, feel motivated, because I knew how I had felt when I was struggling. I knew what it felt like to have no hope.
11:26
And so I learned that as I focused on the "why" I wanted to do the podcast that I wanted to do this to help and inspire others. That is I shifted my focus from the fear, to the reason "why" I was able to get past my fear. It was really a miracle.
11:49
And I really did do a lot of praying with that too, because I knew God could help me move past fear, but but it depends where you're focusing. So if you have an obstacle, and there is a lot of fear around the obstacle, you need to focus on the reason why you want to do it. And so I encourage you to journal about that, to write the reasons you want to do it. Because that reason is often strong enough to pull you forward. So you have to identify their deepest reason.
12:24
And sometimes you have to, I don't know if you've ever done the exercise, the seven levels of why. But it is a super powerful way to really get down to the the deep, deep reasons you want to do something. So say, I want to start a podcast, you ask the question, Why? Because I want to help others. And then you turn that into a question, why do you want to help others? Because I know what it feels like to feel down and discouraged. Why do you want to help others not feel down and discouraged? And then you just keep going and going and going and going and you'll find your why. You'll find your why.
13:07
You can also turn that why question into reasons you're having the fear. Why are you scared to start your podcast? Because I don't want to put myself out there on the internet. Why don't you want to put yourself out there on the internet? Because I don't want to be bullied. And well, I don't think I got to that conclusion until I was clear down at the seven levels of why? But the real reason I found once I I wrote down my seven reasons of seven levels of why, I didn't want to begin podcasting because I had been bullied when I was in sixth grade. And I didn't want to put myself out there to be bullied again.
13:53
And so it's interesting how sometimes the things in our past will come back. And we don't realize that those are the reasons we are scared to do something. And so I kind of had to put that to rest and give it to God and ask Him to help me overcome that. And then take that big, brave, bold step and focus on the reasons I was going to help people before I was able to start this podcast.
14:18
And guess what we will hit our two year anniversary this month. So I'm excited that you can help me and celebrate with me on this.
14:28
Alright guys, those are the three tips to overcoming obstacles that we face when we set goals. So if you have set goals already and you've come against a wall that's blocking your way, try these tips and see if you can't figure out a way around them with God's help. Because I know I know He can help us when perhaps nobody else can.
14:59
I want to leave you with a wonderful verse of scripture that is just one of my favorites all around. And let me give you a little bit of background on this. This is the in the story of Sarah and Abraham. And they were getting on in years they hadn't been able to have children. And finally, I'm sure she was Menopausal, already menopausal. Someone came and told Abraham that he would have a son and Sarah was so excited.
15:32
And here's the verse that I want to share with you. It's in Genesis, chapter 18, verse 14, "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" So these wonderful people had a goal to have a child. And even though she was past her, childbearing years, God was able to answer that prayer. So don't give up on your goals, you can do them, you can find ways to overcome the obstacles that face you.
16:04
So there you go, guys, I want to conclude with a quote by Martin Luther. He said, "Everything that has done in the world, is done by hope." And so it is my hope that you will keep hoping and keep reaching for your goals, that you won't let the obstacles that come in your path slow you down, that you can find solutions to the challenges that come before you. Have an awesome day. And God bless.
16:38
Hey, thanks so much for listening to today's show. I know that there are many of you out there that are going through a hard time and I hope you found things that have been useful today, as you listen to the podcast. If you would like to access the show notes from today's podcast, visit my website. That is stories of hope podcast.com. That is where you'll find favorite quotes from today's episode. And shareable means and those are fine because you can share them with your friends on social media. You will also find the links mentioned throughout today's episode, so you don't have to remember what those were. And also all the tips that were shared. Sometimes tips are shared so much throughout an episode you forget what were those great things. So go to the shownotes stories of hope podcast.com to look up these fantastic resources. You know, if someone kept coming to mind during today's episode, perhaps that means that you should share this with them. Maybe there was a story shared or a tip that they really really need to hear. So go ahead and share this episode with them. May God bless you especially if you are struggling with hope to carry on and with the strength to keep going when things get tough. Remember to walk with Christ and He will help bear that burden. Above all else, remember God loves you.