Challenges are Opportunities – Here’s How to Make the Most of Them
To be human is to experience difficulty.
As much as many of us wish this wasn’t the case, it’s an unavoidable part of life. You will bump into challenges. Things will be tougher than you thought. Outcomes often won’t go your way.
And thank god, because that means you’re living. That means you’re doing something with your tiny fragment of time on this planet.
I say this knowing full well that it doesn’t make the difficult moments any easier. But as demoralising as some challenges can be, it’s important to try and see them for what they really are – challenges are opportunities.
I think there are two key reasons they deserve this label.
Reason #1 - Challenges Help You Become Better
The concept of difficulty leading to improvement is by no means an original idea. Hell, there’s a million different inspirational quotes dedicated to it:
“The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.”
“Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.”
“Pressure makes diamonds.”
But the idea is so ubiquitous because of how inherently true it is.
Something challenging us is an indicator that we’ve moved outside of our comfort zone, and it’s this departure from comfort that allows us to stretch our abilities and, ultimately, develop.
In fact, this is a core tenet of deliberate practice, one of the most effective science-based strategies for learning new skills.
The sweet spot for learning and improvement is in the frustrating point where the challenge slightly outpaces our ability. The point where doing the thing correctly feels within reach but mistakes are still frequent.
So, this is an important reframe – whenever you’re feeling challenged, recognise the frustration or negative emotion as a good thing. It’s a precursor for your improvement, which is what you’ve wanted all along.
Reason #2 - Everyone Else Will Quit
This one is a little more juvenile but I still find it to be useful. Recognise that for every challenge that makes you feel like quitting, it’s probably doing the same thing to everybody else.
Whether we’re talking in the context of career, business, or sport, challenges make your competition want to quit just as they do for you. In fact, some of those competitors will quit. You’ll have won simply by outlasting them, as long as you choose to continue pushing forward.
This concept was spoken about in detail by Chris Williamson and Alex Hormozi on Williamson’s Modern Wisdom Podcast. Watch it below:
The obvious conclusion here is persistence being a virtue. When things get hard, rather than taking that as a signal to quit, take it as a signal to keep grinding. Even if you tell yourself you’ll stop after 1 more set, 1 more chapter, or 1 more hour. Whatever it is, keep going. Watch everyone else quit behind you.
Challenges are Opportunities – Example Time
To provide a practical example, my most recent challenge has been recovering from a jiu-jitsu-induced broken hand.
Over the weeks since the incident, I’ve battled the frustration of many parts of my life being put on hold. I’ve been unable to train, unable to drive, and simple things like tying my shoelaces have been temporarily next to impossible.
The result of this was me becoming a bit of a hermit, shut away from life outside my house.
However, as I begun to adapt to my situation, I started to see the opportunities. I was unable to hit the mats or grip weights, but there were still plenty of leg and core exercises I could do.
I could certainly use this break from all my other training to rehabilitate a few niggling lower body injuries – things that aren’t serious now but may well become that way if I’m not able to fix them.
With this in mind, the challenge of my broken hand has become an opportunity for growth. I’m also reminding myself of all the people that get injured during martial arts training and never again return to the mats. Each of them becoming another Hunger Games casualty, letting a setback prevent them from pursuing a goal and thus, no longer being competition for myself or others.
Thinking of it from this angle has me excited to show back up for that first session, in a few weeks once the fracture has healed. Hopefully this has inspired you to bring a similar mentality to your own challenges.