It is football season here in the United States, and we are all spending much of our weekend time watching our favorite high school, college and professional teams. Over the weekend, I noticed how frequently the coaches of the football teams discussed the importance of overcoming adversity to their players. To summarize, the coaches were talking about how adversity is a fact of life in football, and that you just have to anticipate it, accept it when it arrives, and devise a plan to make the most of the new reality when adversity visits. Perhaps your offensive line is decimated by injuries, perhaps your best running back is sick, or perhaps your defensive backfield is inexperienced. Whatever the situation, you must deal with it. Overcoming adversity is one of the things that makes success so very challenging and yet, so absolutely rewarding. If you’re interested in this like I am, read on…
Mindset First: It would be easy to tell yourself that life should be adversity-free, but that would be foolish, and we know better. If you expect some adversity in life and realize that it is your responsibility to control your handling of the inevitable challenges that will visit you, you are off to a good start. Carol Dweck advises that we change our thinking about failure and overcoming challenges. Instead of feeling defeated or feeling like we’ve failed, she counsels us to focus on the positive progress. In the face of what may appear to be a setback, the resilient leader can declare that we have “not yet” overcome this adversity, but that we are close. Give us time, and we shall overcome any challenge. With the right mindset, a person or a team can do just about anything.
Focus on Your Response: We can only control what we can control, right? We cannot prevent adversity from visiting our efforts, but we can determine what happens next when it does. Focus on that! Focus on optimizing your response to the challenge, don’t focus on luck, don’t focus on fairness, and refuse to play the patsy or the victim. YOU can control your destiny, and YOU can define what you are known for. Maximize the positive actions that you and your team take in your effort to rise above the setback. Show your team your mettle and lead them by confidently wading into the fray and taking it to the adversity. At the very least, you will feel better about defiantly battling back, and your team will be inspired by your pluck!
Don’t Listen To “The Voices”: I know you’ve heard them. I certainly have. They are those annoying voices you hear in the back of your head when the challenges surface. Little voices telling you that your luck is rotten, that this isn’t fair, that you can’t, that you’re screwed, and so on. That is just negative self-talk and FEAR working on your subconscious. Being defeatist and listening to the voices of FEAR and negative self-talk never helped anyone accomplish anything. They are designed to make you cower in the face of a challenge and to retreat to your comfort zone. The voices need to be replaced with your confident battle cry! Shout in defiance and declare that “I’m not going to let a little adversity determine MY fate! I’m going to fight like hell, and turn this battle in my favor!” You can do it. Nothing is impossible if you work at it with hard work, courage, and diligence. Think about Everest, the 4-minute mile, and a million other things that once seemed impossible. Someone always has to be the first to overcome them. It might as well be you, don’t you think? Go ahead; you can do it. Now…
Believe in Inevitability: If you believe in yourself, and if you believe the best in the others on your team, it seems like any challenge can be overcome. I can think of dozens of times in my life when I thought that some obstacle was too great, too difficult, too imposing for us to rise above it. I observed confident, aggressive, positive people who refused to be defined by an obstacle making intelligent plans to change the game. Then they immediately rallied their teams to battle the adversary. If you believe in the inevitability of your victory, you unleash a remarkable amount of positive thought and energy to help you to devise the strategy that allows you to overcome the obstacle. In essence, you turn the obstacle into the motivator that helps you and your team to rise to your very best work and your very best response.
Never Relent: I remember running distance races in my youth. A great coach by the name of Harry Haslanger taught me that when two runners are closing in on the finish line, the one who gets there first is the one who refuses to give in. He taught me to listen for the sound of defeat from my adversaries and taught me to continue to pressure them until I broke them. To this day, I can remember that sweet sound and the fabulous way it felt when I vanquished the other guy and finished the race with strength. Too often, we give in, and accept defeat, and refuse to acknowledge that if we’d just pushed a little harder, we could have triumphed. Don’t give in. Don’t waver. Don’t quit. Ever. If you believe that you can do it, you can. If you believe you cannot do it, you are finished. If you believe in what you are fighting for, you MUST keep going, and you MUST keep fighting for what you believe in. Never quit. Not ever.
I noticed this weekend that almost every team in every game had to deal with some adversity. I also noticed that the ones who refused to let adversity define their outcomes prevailed, game after game. Football and business and life are about overcoming adversity. It happens. It happens nearly every day, every minute, every second. Expect it. Embrace it. Master your ability to rise to your very best when adversity shows up. You will never regret it.
Michael is an award-winning business advisor and executive development coach. He works with dozens of mid-sized companies from around the United States, helping their Executive Teams to raise the level of their game, and handle adversity when it arrives. Michael believes he is fortunate to be able to lead his clients to deliver ambitious results, even in the face of adversity. We hope you enjoyed this reminder to laugh in the face of adversity and to dig deep and find out what you are made of. Make the most of your day today…