Your rock days are those days when everything you do just don’t add up.
On these days, it totally feels like the world is against you and you’re all alone. Your diamond days are those days that you feel so good about yourself and everything around you.
Going from rock days to diamond days is not impossible. There are some characters you must have to make the switch easy. In the diamond world, these are known as parameters. According to Your Diamond Teacher, “cut may rule the diamond parameters, but carat weight is just as important”.
When you apply this to your life, carat weight is synonymous to your attitude. What is the measure of your attitude when you encounter tough and difficult days? Are you the optimistic or pessimistic type?
Tough and difficult days are part of everyone’s life. Sometimes, challenges are also important to grow as individuals. You need to learn how to manage stress and respond with a positive attitude to these challenges. This will help you grow as a person and start moving forward in life.
Some of your ability to succeed will come from the way you handle life issues and manage stress. Successful people have some outstanding characteristics.
One is that they recognize the inevitability of temporary disappointments and defeats. That way, they accept them as a normal and natural part of life. They do everything possible to avoid problems. But when problems come, they respond with a positive attitude.
Mining diamonds is not an easy process. And this is how some life situations can be.Here are some proven ways to turn your rock days to diamond.
Break your difficulties into small goals
It is important to breakdown your challenges into smaller parts. Some challenges often appear to be difficult when viewed as a whole. You need to see each small part as a short-term goal.
When you combine several short-term goals, it leads to the delivery of a medium-term goal. And combining medium-term goals leads to the completion of your long-term goal and then success.
It is important that you establish your goals at the beginning and make sure they are outside your comfort zone. Don’t set your sights low. Besides, make sure that your goals are measurable so you can track your progress on a regular basis. Most importantly, celebrate success. When you achieve a goal, celebrate yourself.
Believe in yourself
It is rarely our physical selves that stop us from achieving a major challenge. When you stop believing in yourself, then failure becomes inevitable. When you believe that you can achieve your goal, you can easily find solutions in overcoming your challenges. With belief comes commitment. This will ensure you invest the time and resources to deliver your short-term goals.
Repeated success in delivering your goals increases your motivation. This will increase your belief in your abilities to deliver your long-term goals. Make sure you pay attention to your brain performance throughout your challenge. This will optimize your chances of delivering your physical goals.
Assess your challenges
You will rarely overcome an obstacle unless you figure out how it originated. With this in mind, ask yourself: What went wrong? What could have caused this? What must I do now? The key is to learn from whatever caused your difficulties. And then to use that experience to avoid a possible occurrence in the future.
It is important to realize that you can only find solutions when you open your mind to possibilities. Open your mind also to options that you hadn’t considered before.
To do this, sit down with a pen and paper and ask yourself questions. The more options you ask yourself, the more opportunities you have to find the right answers to your challenges. Once you are able to answer in truth, it becomes easy to turn your challenges into an opportunity.
Don’t compare yourself with others
After setting your goals, you may wish to get there as fast as it seems others are. You must understand that your journeys are different. Find ways to enjoy your journey and celebrate each little success on the way.
It is important to be aware of each process on your entire journey. The whole process like mining diamonds — tedious, hard and arduous. But at the end of the day, the results far outweighs the process.
Have a positive attitude
A person with a positive outlook knows how to manage stress in difficult situations. They move beyond this disappointment with ease. The optimist responds with a positive attitude. Your conscious mind can hold only one thought at a time, either positive or negative. Choose a positive thought to dwell on. This will keep your mind optimistic and your emotions positive.
Your thoughts and feelings determine your actions. You will be a more constructive person once your thoughts are positive. You will start moving forward towards your chosen goals. It all comes down to the way you talk to yourself. Whenever you have a difficulty, immediately re-frame it. View it as a challenge, and start moving forward.
Rather than saying, “I have a problem,” say, “I have an interesting challenge facing me.” The word challenge becomes positive. It is something that you rise to that makes you stronger and better. It is the same situation, only the word that you are using to describe it is different.
If you don’t find success, start over. Problems and difficulties are not always resolved in the first trial. Many repetitions may be necessary for solving any problem. Testing solutions will often reveal gaps and issues not addressed very well. Especially from various perspectives. You can step back and restart any steps aforementioned. Solutions can evolve and improve.
Originally published at medium.com