Life is not a walk in the park. In fact, it can often feel like a constant hurdle race just to get through a simple 24 hour window. Life’s burdens are challenging enough, let alone when you have to face them without any notice. Below are five handy tips to help you better prepare and deal with life’s unexpected challenges.
1. Protect Yourself
Insurance can often take the financial sting out of the unexpected. Are you home, car and contents insured? What about your income? Many people don’t want to think about having to step aside from work if they suddenly take ill or are injured. Income protection can help to counteract some of these burdens, allowing you focus on your recovery.
2. Be Proactive
One of the worst approaches you can take when dealing with a major life challenge is to let it take over your life completely. You need to actively make the choice to do something to benefit yourself. Set aside 30 minutes of exercising a day or organise regular group activities. Even just going to the movies or dinner with friends once a week could make all the difference.
3. Talk About It
It doesn’t have to be a professional that you talk to, although talking to someone completely removed from the situation is more likely to give you an unbiased perspective. If that’s not for you though, try having a chat to a close friend or partner, and really lay your circumstances and feelings on the table. Letting the built-up angst continue to build up will only make the problems at hand even more challenging to deal with. Get them out!
4. Disperse The Load
Don’t deal with it all on your own. Even though you may not be able to disperse the actual obstacle, there are other items in your life that can easily be reallocated. Make lists of all your everyday tasks and ask close friends and family to take care of them for you. Even something as simple as picking up your dry-cleaning can take up your time and energy. Find a friend who can help you through these tough times in a practical way. You’ll find most people are willing to lend a helping hand if it might directly ease some of life’s burdens from a loved one.
5. Deal With It
Face your challenge head-on instead of placing it in the too-hard basket. It might help to jot down the specifics of the problem such as what’s causing it, where it started, and pros and cons on how to move past it. By defining it in this way you are materialising your stressor, which will help you to think more logically and rationally when it comes to working through it. Dot points are much easier to cross off than emotions!
The worst thing about life’s challenges is that they usually are unexpected – that’s what makes them such major challenges in the first place. The worst thing you can do is get so disheartened that you don’t move forward at all. Source your problem, define it, and work through it one day at a time.
What is your best technique for dealing with life’s more challenging days? send us a message
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