Life is hard.
You will go through some sort of struggle at some point in your life, and in order to succeed, you have to hustle, even on the days you don’t feel like it. When your motivation is no longer there, your self-discipline should be.
Just like with everything else, that’s easier said than done. The good news is that there are many people who have applied certain strategies in their life to help them overcome the tough times, making the hustle feel and look natural.
Related: 13 Daily Habits of Highly Successful People
Here are four strategies you can use when life gives you lemons.
1. Change your perspective.
Sometimes all it takes to get out of a challenging situation is to change your perspective.
Instead of thinking that you’re struggling, think of it as progressing. Change your language from I have to do this today to I get to do this today. A simple switch can make all the difference in turning a tough situation into an opportunity.
Usually when you’re struggling in life or business, it’s because things aren’t going the way you planned, and because it didn’t go as planned, you feel frustrated.
It’s crucial to keep in mind that you are not your situation. If you can’t control the situation you’re in, you can control the way you react to it. A change in perspective comes when you’re aware that you’re in control of your emotions—you control whether you feel stressed or not. You can see it as life happening to you or life happening for you.
You decide.
2. Focus on the things that move the needle.
Let’s say you don’t want to change your perspective; you want to change the situation you’re in.
First things first: Analyze your life and figure out why you’re struggling and what you’re struggling with.
A good way to find out is by doing time studies. Time studies are the analysis of a specific job by a qualified worker in an effort to find the most efficient method. It measures the time necessary for a job or task to be completed using the best method.
You need to focus on the things that move the needle. If you’re struggling, you’re most likely focusing on busy work instead of productive work. If you focus only on the important things, you will see more progress and be less stressed about the unimportant things.
3. Learn acceptance.
Most of the time when you’re feeling stressed, it’s because something isn’t going your way, and because it isn’t going your way, you refuse to accept it.
The problem with that is that you’re giving that problem more weight than it deserves. Holding onto the toxic things in your life can be very unhealthy. You see, most things in life are irrelevant; they don’t matter as much as you think they do.
One of the things I learned while reading How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie is that your worry comes from not accepting reality and being present. You exaggerate what will happen instead of what actually does happen.
If you come to terms with what is happening right now in your life, then it doesn’t have control over you anymore. Accepting that you’re going to struggle and that it’s normal to do so will give you a new power that you didn’t have before. You gain control by letting go of it. By understanding that struggling and hustling is normal, you also understand that you’ve gone through this plenty of times before.
4. Act “as if.”
The “as if” principle is used by acting the way you want to feel. If you want to be confident, act as if you are already confident and you’ll find that those qualities will become a part of you quicker than you think.
By using at least one of these strategies, you’ll find yourself with more power and more control over your life.
