How to Defy the Odds Against You & Achieve Success?

You and I are striving for success each day. Along the way, we realize the road to success is nowhere near smooth.

The road is full of hurdles, setbacks, and failures. Not to mention, the journey comes with a long emotional rollercoaster ride. 

On top of that, there are people who seem much ahead of you. If that’s not enough, you’ll find several external forces ready to bring you down.

Sounds heavy, right?

While the road to success is rocky, it doesn’t mean you can’t beat the odds to achieve your goals. It does take hard work, perseverance, and consistent efforts to keep moving forward.

The good news is it’s totally possible to turn the odds in your favor, withstand all the trouble, and triumph without losing it along the way. 

Let’s explore how you can achieve success and defy the odds against you.

Categorize the obstacles on your way

You will encounter a lot of obstacles when the odds are against you. But finding or creating a way out of obstacles shows true strength. First things first, you should recognize the negative situation and categorize the obstacles.

By categorizing the challenges that you may face on your road towards success, you can plan to deal with those challenges effectively.

You may face external obstacles such as the pressure of public perception about you. You need to understand that you cannot change public perception, so any form of negative criticism must not force you to alter your path.

Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it. – Michael Jordan

Similarly, there could be internal obstacles that you may have to fight, such as fatigue, frustration, or anxiety. You will be experiencing all types of emotions in the pursuit of success and this is where approaching obstacles strategically will help in overcoming negative emotions. 

You should break down and map the obstacles to find ways to overcome them.

For example, if you are suffering financially, you can grow or strengthen your skillset to make more money. Or you can think about keeping a check on your expenses. If you live in an expensive flat, you can relocate to a relatively affordable one.

You should always be ready to adapt according to circumstances as it will help in managing stressful situations more effectively.  

Stay emotionally stable and healthy

Our emotions play a significant role in maintaining our physical and mental health.

Emotional well-being is often overlooked by most people, which can have serious consequences. It is important to understand that a hectic routine and thinking too much about your future can also lead to depression and anxiety.

It is this time when you quickly need to react and get rid of your depression and stress by talking about your problems with your friends and asking for help from others who have also been in a similar situation. With a healthy mind and body, you will be able to make decisions that are impactful and beneficial.

I found that with depression, one of the most important things you could realize is that you’re not alone. You’re not the first to go through it; you’re not going to be the last to go through it. – The Rock

Dwayne Johnson, famously known as The Rock, is one of the top Hollywood actors and also a former WWE star who talks about the importance of managing emotional health effectively.

Such is the kind of attitude that can help you defy the odds and come out of even the most challenging emotional phases in life.

When people ignore their emotional well-being, they tend to make impulsive decisions. Indulging oneself in healthy activities such as self-care, workouts, and reading inspirational stories of successful people can help in maintaining emotional and physical well-being.

Chase your dreams with a focused approach 

Imagine you have planned to go on a trip to a place where you would love to spend your precious time and make unforgettable memories.

Now, if you realize after setting off that your journey is full of challenges, you have two options; either go back or keep moving forward regardless of the challenges.

If you go back, you may avoid difficulties for the time being, but it will have adverse implications in the long term. Subsequently, you will never find it comfortable to deal with difficulties and such an over-cautious approach will limit your growth in life.

When you reach an obstacle, turn it into an opportunity. You have the choice.

You can overcome and be a winner, or you can allow it to overcome you and be a loser. The choice is yours and yours alone. Refuse to throw in the towel.

Go that extra mile that failures refuse to travel. It is far better to be exhausted from success than to be rested from failure. – Mary Kay Ash

On the other hand, if you complete the journey, learn from the challenges and reach your destination, it will help you grow immensely in life.

You will be able to defy the odds and feel more confident while chasing your dreams. If you are determined to get to your destination, you can withstand almost anything.

Self-evaluation often helps in maintaining focus on achieving one’s goals. The goal should not be to achieve perfection but to make an untiring effort to achieve your best potential. With such a focused approach, the road towards success can become smoother and less bumpy. 

Love what you are doing  

Many people are able to set a direction in their lives but find it very difficult to achieve consistency, which affects their productivity. It is because they usually do not love what they are doing. To be successful in any field of life, it is essential to love what you are doing.

To make it happen, one must learn from the experiences of successful people and apply strategies that can help you navigate the odds.  

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. – Steve Jobs

Here are some tips to help you enjoy what you are doing:

• Set realistic goals
• Follow a schedule 
• Improve your willpower 
• Sleep properly 
• Take regular breaks during your work 
• Think about how good you will feel on achieving your goals and keeping pushing yourself
• Read helpful books or articles that can guide you to solve problems
• Reward yourself for achieving smaller milestones 

The point is, if you love what you are doing, you will enjoy every day of your life.

But to develop such a love for your work and to achieve consistency, you will have to stay motivated. The tips mentioned above can help you in keeping yourself motivated even when you have to repeat a particular routine.  

Stay consistent until you make it

Consistency is the key to reaching your goals. A consistent person can often prove to be better than a talented, intelligent, or even lucky person. It is not just about setting goals in life but also chasing them with passion, enthusiasm, and consistency.

If you have set your goals, and know what you want from your life, it is time to act more consistently and keep improving your skills to unlock your hidden potential. 

For example, if you are a writer and want to publish a book, it will require following a specific routine every day to keep refining what you want to write. It is fine to take small breaks while you are writing, but you cannot skip days as it will disrupt the entire flow of your writing.

Even with an inconsistent approach, you might complete your work on time, but it might not have the desired depth in it that would appeal to your target audience. Consistency often gets ignored because, at times, we overestimate our skills and capabilities.

This can have a bad impact on your growth in any field of life and can be a constant hurdle in your way towards achieving ultimate success. 

It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives. It’s what we do consistently. – Anthony “Tony” Robbins

The thing about consistency is that it can help you evolve your skills or craft over a period.

If you make sketches daily but do not learn new things or creative ideas to enhance your sketching, you will be the same sketcher after ten years. But if you become a student of your niche and try to learn more about sketching every day and practice it, you will continue to become better at it.

You can improve your worth this way, and people will start to recognize you. 

Consistency will help you achieve the desired balance in life. It is a proven formula to success if we study the biographies of successful people. The problem with us humans is that we find the repetition of things boring. We find it difficult to focus on one thing, again and again, which can make it tougher to achieve consistency. That is why only some of us get to achieve excellence in a particular niche.   

Find a mentor and ask for help

Your chances of becoming successful increase when you find a good mentor. A mentor can guide you through the right path and help you reach your destination by giving you advice that will help you achieve your goals. Always stay humble, and do not be afraid to ask for help anytime you get stuck. 

A correct decision will take you many years ahead, and a wrong decision will drag you back. And a mentor can help you make the right decision.  A mentor is an expert in a specific field who is well-reputed and successful.

An ideal mentor can help you set a clear direction in your life with the help of his/her own experiences that include both failures and success. Mentors usually have an inspirational personality and people can learn from their life lessons to achieve similar success. 

Show me a successful individual and I’ll show you someone who had real positive influences in his or her life. I don’t care what you do for a living—if you do it well, I’m sure there was someone cheering you on or showing the way. A mentor. – Denzel Washington

The famous actor Arnold Schwarzenegger has an inspirational personality and according to him, things become more manageable when you ask for help. In an interview, Arnold said that he would never have become a successful actor if he had not reached producers, directors, and other actors for help at the right time.

He approached them to know about his flaws and how he could do better and be the best version of himself. It helped him unlock the secret formula to achieve success, which was to keep improving what you can do best. He has been one of the most reputable and highest-paying actors for a long time.

Keep the faith and learn from your mistakes

When you want to achieve success in life, you must not fear failure. Every time you fail, it presents an opportunity to perform better next time and achieve what you could not have done before. Faith is the building block of your dreams and is the driving force that lets you take a risk.

If you lose faith in your capabilities after a minor failure, it will have a bad impact on your growth in life. It is, therefore, essential to learn from mistakes and keep moving in the forward direction. 

We have always taken the wrong picture of our failures. We start doubting ourselves when we fail, which is unfair, as failures can potentially make us more determined in our approach and help in setting a clearer direction in life. Failures teach us the most important lessons, which nothing else can. 

Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success. – Dale Carnegie

Globally, famous people like Bill Gates also consider failure as a perfect tool to shape the future. He said in an interview that “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of earning.” It means we can always strive to become a better version of ourselves after we encounter failures.

No matter how many motivational quotes we read and how many motivational videos we watch, the real power of becoming successful lies within us. Our ability to lift ourselves up after every failure makes us stronger and more determined than ever before.  

Takeaway

The key to achieving success and fighting the odds against you lies in staying focused, consistent, and taking care of yourself.

As long as you keep your destination in mind and make your best effort to achieve your goals, you will always discover the incredible power within you to tackle even the biggest challenges in life.