HOW TO OVERCOME ADVERSITY

HOW TO OVERCOME CHALLENGES AND SUCCEED IN BUSINESS An inspirational e-book from the internationally acclaimed motivational speaker, James Chapman “No matter how good or how bad things may be, they are going to get better” John F. Kennedy Mountains, Obstacles, Barriers, Adversity If you are faced with a mountain, do you go over or around it? “The only way around is through.” Robert Frost “Life is about Love, Inspiration, Faith and Endeavour.” James Chapman “Of all the virtues we can learn, no trait is more useful, more essential for survival and more likely to improve the quality of life than the ability to transform adversity into an enjoyable challenge” Mihalyi Csikszentmihaly TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Experiences of Life - Realising a dream - Losing loved ones - Falling in love - Financial hardship 3. The Journey 4. Success Subtle „Something‟ 5. 6. Adversity and Health 7. Gaining the Power UMI – The Improvement Process 8. 9. Benefits 10. Biography 11. Contact Details 1. INTRODUCTION I have a “secret” and I want to share it with you; “How to Overcome Challenges and Succeed in Business” My name is James Chapman; I am a business management consultant and a motivational speaker. I am a very successful businessman, providing consultancy and strategic direction for many of the world‟s leading corporations. Many people want to give you an inspirational speech or tell you about their lives and how they managed to achieve everything against all the odds. Now that is fine, if what you are looking for is the “theory” and not the “method” of how to put it all into practice, in order to improve and make things more successful in your business lives. I am more than willing to motivate you with a speech, because it will have content and substance about the “secret” and we will explore and discuss the experiences of life. And, if you want to hear all about my experiences of life, then you can hear that too! But the important part is taking it further and for me to show you the “secret” of “How to Overcome Challenges and Succeed in Business” This “secret” is a systematic, (UMI), improvement process which is relevant for individuals, teams and organisations. Each of them will gain benefit from using the process of understanding, measuring and improving their effectiveness to succeed. The process will provide the information for understanding and increasing all aspects of a successful life. A measurement of how you respond to challenges (RTA) And a proven set of tools for improving how you respond to challenges I will explain how to gain the power necessary to permanently improve your ability to combat challenges And then, you will know the “secret” of “How to Overcome Challenges and Succeed in Business” 2. Experiences of Life Realising a dream Having an objective or goal, something you want to achieve in your life, no matter what. Something that will keep you focused and give you purpose. But to realise that dream will mean that you will face a lot of adversity and setbacks in your life until your dream is achieved. Your dream can take many forms; it may be related to your personal enhancement, or having your own business, or building a house, or making a journey, or even moving to another country. Whatever the dream, the only way it is going to be realised is if you are persistent, resilient and tenacious, making up your mind that even though it may take a long time, maybe years and that many obstacles may distract you from your purpose, you will realise the dream before you come to the end of your life. Sometimes the only way you can succeed in realising a dream is for someone else to share that dream with you, this may be, a close friend, a loved one or a business partner. But, you must both be of the same mindset, focused on the same purpose, because if the going gets tough and one is not strong enough to overcome the adversity and challenges that are presented to them, then the dream will be abandoned and lost. A dream is a desire, one that consumes and obsesses you until it is realised. Having made the decision that you will make this dream happen, with the visualisation and belief in the attainment of your desire, then, you must have faith in the events that happen along the way. Everything happens for a reason, to give us direction or to teach us something and it is up to us to interpret what is happening. Sometimes you may be taken in a totally different direction, but there will be a reason for this, it may be the only way you will find out what you need for your dream to be progressed or realised. If you are determined enough, if your desire to succeed is so strong that it totally consumes you, if you can visualise and believe in your dream and have faith, keeping going no matter what adversity presents itself, then you will have your dream realised. Losing loved ones Loss of a parent, son, daughter, brother, or sister can be a very traumatic experience. Whereas, the loss of an aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, cousin, or friend, can be less emotionally disturbing, because they are not as directly involved with you. But the core feelings are the same, the sadness, the question „why‟ and the mourning, because you are going to miss seeing, talking to and touching the person that you knew so well. The adversity of the loss of loved ones, especially if it is from an illness or an accident, is very difficult to deal with. When a loved one dies, it always seems to be an unexpected event in our minds, even if they were ill and in hospital. The circumstances, under which they die, will after a short time, abate and the full impact of the depth of loss will takeover. It is a dramatic change in our lives and sometimes it can take a long time for us to come to terms with it. Our reaction can be to blame ourselves, to feel that we did not do enough. A feeling of despair, helplessness and depression are common symptoms. It is often said that it is harder for the ones that are left behind to cope with the reality of the loss. The ability to transform adversity into a challenge or opportunity is one of the traits that are a virtue of mankind. Time is a great healer and soon the sadness recedes to allow the good, positive happy memories of the person to „shine‟ in your mind. Yes, there will be tears and mixed emotions because of those memories, but as each day goes by you will more and more „see‟ your loved one and start to move on in your own life again. After all, it would have been what they would have wanted you to do anyway. The only way, to show them how much you loved and respected them, is to achieve in your life, what they had always hoped for you. Falling in love Maybe you are saying to yourself, „how can falling in love be an adversity?‟ Don‟t forget we are talking about the experiences of life and falling in love is one of them. I think all of us will agree, that it does not matter what age you are, when you fall in love, there can be obstacles or barriers, sometimes even mountains, in the way of you being with the person, who has just become so important in your life. This is called adversity; you have to evaluate the opportunities, determine what the challenges are and become focused on your objective. The person that fills your heart with such desire may be in another town across the other side of the country, or in another country across the other side of the world, or even, heaven forbid, in love with someone else. Either way, it has now become the purpose of your life, to be with that person and you will do whatever it takes to make it happen. You have made up your mind that you will move mountains, if necessary, in order to be with the one you love. Nothing is going to stand in your way. What is this mysterious emotion called love? For the love of another person, we will be more inspired, have a sense of never ending motivation and achieve more in our lives than we had ever thought was possible. Is love so powerful, what does happen to us when we fall in love? Love is the strongest of all human desires and we become totally obsessed with this very powerful desire. It controls our thoughts in a way that no other emotion can. Love is a fundamental part of our being; we could not exist without it. It is as primitive as our beginnings and is an integral part of our instincts. Without love our world would be a very sad place, no positive direction or purpose and a feeling of emptiness. Love gives us the hope to go on, under circumstances that can be almost unbearable. Love puts us back in control of our lives. Financial hardship When you have money, life presents you with many challenges and opportunities, but when you don‟t have enough money in your life, there doesn‟t seem to be many opportunities and the challenges seem to be much too big. Not having enough money for the basics of life, food, clothes and somewhere to live creates a set of pressures that can be too much for the human mind to endure. The reason for the financial hardship may come about in several different ways, loss of your job, breakdown of a marriage, sudden illness or perhaps the death of the provider in the family. Whichever way, it means that you now have to find a way of being creative with the little money that you have. It is difficult to be positive when you are in this situation and the pressure causes you to feel depressed and helpless. Everything seems to be against you and the bills are piling up, with no way of them being paid. In our lives, adversity presents itself in many different forms, the lack of money being one, which in itself creates a series of obstacles and setbacks. The only way to overcome this form of adversity is to consolidate and rebuild your life, back to where you were or even more successful. Instead of trying to combat the symptoms of the lack of money, it is much better to confront the cause of the lack of money. Being unemployed, recovering from sickness, not being able to work, because you have to look after the family alone, all of these are causes of being without money. Let us look at how money moves through our lives. Someone gives it to you for whatever reason, you then give it to someone else, to buy something or pay a bill and that person gives it to someone else for what they require in their lives. So, as humans, we are like the big post office for money. The money is not important, but the person who is going to give it to you is and it is only a matter of identifying or convincing that person to give it to you sooner rather than later. It sounds simple and it can be, first make a list of where all of the people who could give you the money would be. Employer, bank, government, insurance company etc. Now make a list of all the things you could offer them for the money, your capabilities, talents, time, effort or securities etc. Now you have something tangible to work with, start matching the things you can offer to the places money could come from, and then create a prioritisation list of who you will be contacting. “To succeed... You need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you.” Tony Dorsett Once you are inspired the ideas start to flow and the positive adrenalin begins to create a motivation to transform your life, from financial hardship to success and prosperity. It will not happen over night, but it will happen, how long it will take will be determined by your imagination and enthusiasm. Being without money does not last forever; it is just one of the experiences of life. 3. The Journey Deep inside us, as humans, we are driven by instinct to compete with the clock, to achieve as much as we can, in our lifelong Journey, before the sands of time run out. We endeavour to understand our purpose in life, the reason why we exist and discover what it is that is expected of us. As we travel on this Journey, it is not about how far we have come, but how long we have left, to complete what we have defined as our purpose in life. We are all navigating our way on the Journey, searching for knowledge, exploring experiences and trying to understand the signs along the way, to determine if we are going in the right direction and all the time wanting to progress, moving our purpose in life forward and upward. It is possible in some people‟s life for them to proceed over a great distance, in a very short passage of time, while others transverse a short distance over a considerable amount of time. Not having a clear vision of what it is that you are trying to achieve in life, will leave you with an intangible set of objectives, which can only result in failure. Before setting out on life‟s Journey, it would be appropriate to establish what sort of voyage you intend to embark upon and at least in basic terms, what you hope to achieve. Without any firm plans, we have to take whatever life hands out to us, but this inevitably will mean that the Journey will become an odyssey, wandering from place to place, without any sense of direction and destined to result in a compromised or empty life. This will mean that instead of participating and determining your destiny, you are merely a spectator watching others fulfil their lives, while you reflect on a life of missed opportunities and what might have been. The people that experience fulfilment in their lives have had to endure many of the same adverse situations, but because they have a love of life, have had inspirational ideas and had faith in the outcome of their endeavours, they have overcome these adversities. These people welcome the challenges that they face in their lives and know that the unexpected changes and setbacks that they encounter are all part of the Journey. 4. Success Success is defined as how much we triumph and prosper in fame, fortune or happiness, while we are travelling on our lifelong Journey, even though we may face obstacles and adversity. Success in life is not a destination; it is a part of the Journey. Success can be realised in any walk of life, by organisations, groups, communities, families and individuals. In business, success may be seen as being the market leader or the first with an innovation or increasing the dividend to shareholders. Sporting activities bring success in championships, trophies and medals. Whereas, communities may see success as, a new school, or hospital, or youth centre. For families, success shows itself with house ownership, family unity and the progression of their children‟s education. Individuals measure success in terms of personal achievements, diplomas, promotions, salary increases and even the type of car they drive. Success will be determined by how strong our motivation is, how inspired we are, what our attitude of mind might be, or how much vitality we have. Success will also be affected by how good our performance is, how productive we are, or how creative we are. But success is not only about how well recognised we are for our performance or by how much monetary prosperity that we have accumulated. Success is also about the quality of our lives, our happiness and the state of our health. The feeling of being successful is enduring, long after the initial success, whereas the obstacles and adversity that had to be overcome, in order to succeed are fleeting memories in the mists of the past. We gain strength from success; it is the tangible reward for our endeavours. It shows it was worth the investment in time and energy. It lifts our spirits, so that we can continue the Journey. 5. Subtle „Something‟ Successful people have discovered that subtle „something‟ that enables them to overcome adversity. When an unexpected change occurs, they do not perceive it as a problem; they welcome it as an opportunity for more success. Successful people are self confident, determined, resilient, persistent, and tenacious; and believe in themselves being able to achieve their desired goal or objective. Because of this, they are emotionally secure, in control; they listen to their instincts and are at harmony with themselves. They are patient, knowing that sometimes things may take longer to achieve, but they know that they will achieve them. Their motivating force is the desire to succeed, having faith in their actions and because of their tenacity, they will never, ever give up; they do not believe in failure. Successful people have a deep urge to make progress, achieve their goals and to fulfil their dreams. They have a vision which inspires them to grow and at the same time motivate and contribute to other peoples lives. Successful people want to explore their potential, using all their capabilities, carefully listening and monitoring the situation and knowing instinctively when to take action and gain the rewards. To them, everything is possible; it is only a matter of using their imagination, conceiving an idea, believing in themselves and then achieving it with their actions. Successful people will aim higher than they know they can achieve, because they know that if they aim for the moon, even if they fall short, they will be in the stars. They not only have motivation in abundance to help them, they are gifted with enthusiasm, passion, drive and ambition. Nothing deters them, when others may say „it can‟t be done‟, they will find a way, even if it takes them a very long time to do it. Successful people are very optimistic, full of energy and naturally healthy in body and mind. 6. Adversity and Health Your reaction to adversity affects your overall emotional and physical health. Adversity can cause the, often apparent, mechanical reactions of depression and hopelessness. Dealing with, and responding to life‟s adverse situations will cause you to have pressure and stress which result in possible psychological problems. And the pressures of life and the related stress, affect the blood pressure, cholesterol levels and the possibilities of heart attack. Adversity can also weaken your immune system, making you more susceptible to disease and illnesses. People who are optimistic live a healthier life than pessimistic people, because their attitude of mind and positive outlook on life means that they face and overcome the adversity situations with less stress. The ability to effectively respond to and overcome adversity, will not only reduce the effect it has on your physical and emotional health, it will enhance your performance, which will be seen in a greater focus, increased productivity and you will feel more creative. Less time will be spent blaming yourself and getting depressed and there will be a noticeable increase in the speed of recovery from the challenges and setbacks that you experience. You will have a feeling of being in control and will have a constructive approach to how you address the challenges that you encounter each day. You now have more energy and a feeling of empowerment. And over time it will mean that you will have improved health. 7. Gaining the Power You will learn how to gain the power necessary to permanently improve your ability to combat adversity The Understand, Measure and Improve, (UMI), process is critical to all aspects of your success. As you use the tools and concepts presented to you, gradually your life transforms and you notice you are becoming more successful. The natural way you respond to adversity and the result you achieve will evolve into a lifelong legacy of resilience, determination, persistence and tenacity. You are energised in facing each new challenge. And with each new challenge comes the living proof that there is little, if anything, you cannot withstand and overcome. Over time, your ability to respond to adversity will take the form of improved health. You experience enhanced performance, reflected in greater focus and productivity, you feel more creative. And you start to feel a sense of control over your life. The challenges of life can no longer lower your vitality. You now have more energy and a feeling of empowerment. Only through the ability to persevere, respond effectively and combat adversity can empowerment be established and sustained. This gaining of power can equally be realised by individuals, teams or organisations. Each person can improve, in the workplace and at home, for professional and personal success. Success brings profitability to organisations and monetary, lifestyle changes to individuals. That sounds like a recipe for a rich and rewarding life. 8. UMI – The Improvement Process By using a systematic, (UMI), improvement process which is relevant for organisations as well as teams and individuals. Each of them will gain benefit from the process of understanding, measuring and improving their effectiveness to succeed. The process will provide the information for understanding and increasing all aspects of a successful life. A measurement of how you respond to adversity (RTA) And a proven set of tools for improving how you respond to adversity. You will have the opportunity to evaluate, how different types of people respond to adversity, what their mindsets are like, why it is that some are successful, while others just manage to exist and yet others blatantly fail. You will be given a better understanding and measurement of how you respond to adversity, which will provide for you an indication of your ability to overcome, the obstacles and challenges that are presented to you in life. With this information, you will be able to more readily appreciate and more naturally improve the way you respond to adversity. Using an intuitive learning process, you will soon start to find that the way you respond to adversity and the ability that you have to overcome it will improve very quickly. Part of the learning process will involve, analysing your response, confirming your understanding and conclusions and taking action to improve the way you respond in the future. Improvement is a cyclic process, understanding, measuring, and improving, until you achieve a level of response to adversity, that indicates a mindset of resilience, determination, persistence and tenacity. During this learning process you will progressively realise that the challenges are being welcomed by you as opportunities, because you now know you can be more successful and this starts to show in many ways in your life. You feel more of a sense of control; the challenges can no longer lower your vitality, you now have more energy and a feeling of empowerment. 9. Benefits James Chapman‟s personal coaching, will not only disclose the „secret‟ of “How to Overcome Challenges and Succeed in Business”, it will show you What To Do and How To Do It. If you learn and apply the simple techniques that you are taught, you will have mastered the secret of true and lasting success. The Understand, Measure and Improve, (UMI), process is critical to all aspects of your success. As you use the tools and concepts presented to you, gradually your life transforms and you notice you are becoming more successful. The natural way you respond to adversity and the result you achieve will evolve into a lifelong legacy of resilience, determination, persistence and tenacity. You are energised in facing each new challenge. And with each new challenge comes the living proof that there is little, if anything, you cannot withstand and overcome. Over time, your ability to respond to adversity will take the form of improved health. You experience enhanced performance, reflected in greater focus and productivity, you feel more creative. And you start to feel a sense of control over your life. The challenges of life can no longer lower your vitality. You now have more energy and a feeling of empowerment. Only through the ability to persevere, respond effectively and combat adversity can empowerment be established and sustained. These benefits can equally be realised by individuals, teams or organisations. Each person can improve, in the workplace and at home, for professional and personal success. Success brings profitability to organisations and monetary, lifestyle changes to individuals. That sounds like a recipe for a rich and rewarding life. To learn more of what we can do for you contact us now and start gaining the benefits. 10. Biography James Chapman is an international business management consultant and motivational speaker, who has advised many of the world‟s leading firms as well as being an industry expert on Global Business Management He has more than 35 years, of in-depth, business and industry knowledge and 16 years of motivational speaking experience With extensive focussed international travel, both business and personal, he has a considerable accumulation of cultural awareness James was university educated in London, where he achieved Diplomas in Electronics, Psychology and Analytical Science. And further studies at Harvard Business School gained him a MBA in Business Management Within his career at Siemens, James completed the industry acclaimed Business Leadership Program, with Strategic Thinking and Business Processes being his key subjects James Chapman has held the following Business and Industry positions; Project Manager, Technical Marketing Manager, Principal Trainer, Executive Coach, Business Management Consultant, Motivational Speaker, Senior Partner and Director James has had the privilege of working for some of the largest corporate organisations; GEC, IBM, Ford Motor Company and Siemens where he attained the position of Operations Director, Siemens Global Business He has had successful business involvement in the Public Sector with the US Federal Government, UK Government, European Commission and NATO His Private Sector involvements have been with Industry Leaders, Blue Chip Companies and Fortune 500 Companies James Chapman‟s business management consultancy and motivational speaker topics have focussed on the following areas: Global Business Management Business Process Leadership Customer Relationships Skills and Competences Top Management Selection Sales Motivation Overcoming Adversity Thinking Positive Stress Management Self Awareness Cultural Awareness James Chapman has had the privilege over the past 16 years to provide motivational speeches to many international organisations, here is a selection of some of those corporations and venues NATO – Brussels – Belgium Coca-Cola – Atlanta – USA Ciba – Basel – Switzerland Siemens – Munich – Germany Microsoft – Seattle – USA Glaxo-SmithKline – Philadelphia – USA Johnny Walker – London – UK BP – London – UK Hilton – Paris – France IBM – Barcelona – Spain Ford – Detroit – USA Marks & Spencer – London – UK Siemens – Santa Clara – USA IBM – New York – USA Guiness (UD) – Dublin – Ireland Daimler Chrysler – Detroit – USA Adidas – Munich – Germany Siemens – San Jose – USA IBM – Los Angeles – USA World Fair Conference – Geneva – Switzerland Formula One – Monte Carlo – Monaco US Federal Government – Washington DC – USA Oracle – Reston (Virginia) – USA Marriott – Florida – USA Glaxo-SmithKline – San Francisco – USA Motorola – Llimasol – Cyprus Siemens – Lisbon – Portugal L‟Oreal – Athens – Greece British Airways – London – UK His knowledge has been accumulated from his education, business experience, research, reading many books and from his experiences in his own life He is available for conferences, seminars, consultancy and corporate training programs James Chapman lives with his wife and son in the Algarve, Portugal. 11. Contact Details James Chapman Quinta da Rosa Santa Catarina Fonte do Bispo Algarve Portugal 8800-166 Telephone: Email: 00351 96 7114086 James@adversityovercome.com Website: www.adversityovercome.com Blog: http://business-success22.blogspot.com