Recently I was thinking about my interview with Patti Painter for my first book, Victorious Woman! Shaping Life’s Challenges into Personal Victories. She said there was a song that helped her reinvent her life after cancer. “If I Were Brave” was written and sung by Jana Stansfield (who kindly gave me permission to use her words in Victorious Woman).
A couple years later, at National Speakers Association convention, I found myself sitting next to Jana at a meeting. As we chatted, I learned that she’d recently been through some adversity of her own and was reinventing a piece of her own life. We talked for a while about adversity and how no one gets through life without it. The truth is that, no matter what you do to prevent it, life is going to have adversity.
So many midlife women would like to makeover a piece of their life or career or start a new chapter. They don’t because they’re afraid of the adversity brought on by change. All of us are afraid of things like rejection, failure, not being supported and sometimes even fear of success.
So they do nothing. And a deep sadness grows inside.
Don’t let that happen to you!
Learning to handle adversity is one of the most valuable things we can do…and the sooner, the better. Here are a ten ways to do it.
Ten Tips For Dealing with Adversity
- Accept that adversity is inevitable in life (this along will keep you from feeling like a victim).
- Prepare for adversities before they happen. Regularly challenge yourself emotionally and mentally.
- Decide that you can and will handle adversity, no matter what happens (deciding makes a difference!).
- Think through the worse possible scenario to the end.
- Visualize a positive outcome – see yourself victorious.
- Build your support system with people who are positive thinking, strong, happy.
- Thoughts are things, so keep your thoughts on the upside.
- Read about others who have overcome adversity.
- Exercise for stress-relief and boosting beta-endorphins.
- Count your blessings. Remind yourself of the life’s good things.
