There is a great video titled ” The last lecture”, which features a professor, Randy Pausch, who is dying from a brain tumor and is giving his last lecture. It is a highly inspiring video. In the video Randy Pausch talks about obstacles he has faced and makes the comment that obstacles are put in our way to show us how much we care about something. In my work as a coach I think this may be the biggest difference I have noticed between high performance and mediocrity. When we are at our best we see obstacles for what they are; nothing more than challenges. In addition, we become motivated BECAUSE of the challenge. We actually get energy from the problem. However, when we are not at our best we have a tendency to see obstacles as mountains; unmovable and forever lasting. The obstacle takes energy from us and makes it almost impossible to get past. What is interesting is that the size or complexity of the problem seems to have nothing to do with how we view it. I have seen an entrepreneur on the brink of bankruptcy view the situation as nothing more than a short term challenge. I have also seen the same person paralyzed by having too many “to do’s on his task list.
The question then becomes how do you make the shift from seeing obstacles as mountains to seeing them as what they really are; nothing more than short term obstacles. The answer is actually quite simple; practice seeing them as obstacles and not mountains and the rest is easy. If you are able to recognize in yourself how you are perceiving a challenge and can make a shift in your thinking than the solution may come much faster and easier than you thought possible.
