Tag: Challenge

How To Turn Challenges Into Opportunities

My blog focuses on Creating Ecosystems of Success. Life happens to everyone when we least expect it. Knowing how to navigate the unexpected is likewise a very valuable skill. The following contributed post is entitled, How To Turn Challenges Into Opportunities.

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Life has a real knack for testing us, and that’s not always a fun thing to have to go through – but it’s still something that’s going to happen no matter who you are or what you do in life. It could be a problem at work, personal issue or struggle, or anything else at all, and the main issue is that these challenges tend to just pop up out of nowhere – when that happens, all our plans can be destroyed in an instant, and that’s what really hurts in the end.

That might sound rather negative and upsetting, but since it’s going to happen, it’s really how you respond that makes the difference and if you start thinking about how to turn challenges into opportunities instead of dwelling on the negatives of it all, you’ll find you can move forward much more easily and get back on track much more quickly. With that in mind, keep reading to find out more to turn bad into good (or at least less of a problem) so you can keep heading towards your overall goals.

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Change Your Perspective

The first thing you’re going to have to do if you want to have a more positive outlook when things are going wrong in your life is to reframe how you see the challenges in front of you. In other words, instead of looking at them and panicking or feeling down because you assume you can’t get past them, what about thinking about every problem as a puzzle you’ve just got to solve? In that way, you can feel better about things and come up with a positive plan of action at the same time.

For example, if you’ve got limited space it’s going to seem frustrating at first, especially if it was a budget issue that caused the problem, and even more so if you find you suddenly need more space because you want to grow your family, get a pet, or work from home, and so on. But what if you could give yourself more space in an easy and affordable way by thinking creatively and repurposing a 10ft shipping container into something you need, like an office, a shop, extra storage, or – with the right permissions and changes – a tiny home? Just by changing your perspective, what would have seemed like a setback or a limitation might actually be the chance you need to make things better for you.

Learn The Lessons

Something to bear in mind is that every challenge comes with a lesson attached, and it’s down to you whether or not to look at what that lesson is, and whether or not to learn from it. But if you’re wise and you want to turn challenges into opportunities, seeing the lesson and really learning from it is sure to make a huge difference in your life. After all, if you’re happy to do that then even when things don’t go as planned, you’re still going to get something from the experience, and that’s important.

So when something goes a little bit (or a lot, depending) wrong, take a moment to reflect on it all. What can you learn? How can you use the lessons you’ve gone through to make things better in the future? That’s the difference – if you go into everything with an eye for what it can teach you, then you’ll find there’s a lot of opportunities available even if the original plan goes out the window.

Focus On What You Can Control

When you’re faced with a challenge, as we all will be from time to time, it’s so easy to start scrolling through all the ‘what if’ scenarios in your head and you’ll start to worry about things beyond your control. And when that happens, all your energy is going to be zapped and you’ll start to get more stressed than ever before, which is the last thing you’ll want if you’re trying to find the positive in things – you’re just going to keep missing it because you’re worrying and panicking about the negatives.

Take a project at work that’s gone wrong. If that happens, ask yourself what steps you can take to fix it – don’t focus on the problem, focus on the solution instead. If you start to think about actions you can take or people you can ask for help (which can very often be the best place to start), you’ll start to get more and more control, reduce your stress, and be able to think clearly, which will give you the opportunities you need to fix the issue in the first place.

Here Are The Biggest Challenges Facing Businesses Right Now

Three of the focuses of my blog are Current Events, Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. The Coronavirus/Covid-19 Crisis/Pandemic has put businesses in unprecedented challenges and stresses. As such it’s important to figure out how to survive our current conditions. The following contributed post is entitled, Here Are The Biggest Challenges Facing Businesses Right Now.

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Are you wondering how your business is going to cope in the ongoing storm that is the coronavirus pandemic? It’s true to say that businesses are facing a lot of challenges right now. Here are some of the issues that could be on the horizon for your company.

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Remaining Profitable

Of course one of the most significant challenges that businesses are facing right now is simply being able to remain a certain level of profitability. This is going to be more difficult for certain businesses and industries than others. For instance, some are warning that the travel industry won’t return to normal for three years. That’s going to be a harsh reality and the sad truth is that a lot of businesses just won’t be able to survive for that long.

Other companies are coping better and have been able to put more focus on their online model. However certain companies have discovered the dangers of not having any form of an online presence. For instance, Primark bosses reported that they haven’t made a single sale since the pandemic began. That’s understandable because they don’t have an online sales platform. Customers have also abandoned certain sectors completely including businesses that sell luxury goods and services. This always occurs before a recession and we’re definitely headed in that direction.

Ensuring Customers Feel Safe

To get customers buying and visiting businesses they need to feel safe. Businesses will be responsible for ensuring that this is the case and there are numerous ways for them to do this. Take Disney as an example. Bob Iger has already suggested that they will use temperature checks at the park gates. However, it’s not quite understood how this would be logistically possible. The Mouse House has also suggested that park capacity would be significantly limited and disinfectant standards would be increased. Water Parks are unlikely to reopen at all for quite some time. However, Disney has no choice but to push ahead with its plans to restart their business model. They are bleeding right now with millions of dollars going down the drain every day.

Some businesses are facing a greater struggle. People are likely to return to the magical world of Disney. But 40% of customers reportedly won’t return to cinemas until there’s a vaccine. That’s an issue with chains hoping to reopen in time for Warner Bros. next big Hollywood blockbuster Tenet, in July as well as Disney’s Mulan.

Ultimately, even if certain businesses do reopen there’s no guarantee that customers are going to rush back to them.

Questions With Team Members

Right now, a lot of businesses are being supported by a furlough scheme. Ultimately, this means that they can benefit from the government paying the majority of the wages for employees. However, it’s fair to say that a scheme like this can’t continue to run indefinitely. Eventually, the governments of the world will leave businesses to essentially fend for themselves and float or sink. This presents an issue with team members. With the possibility of a lower demand level, particularly in an oncoming recession, businesses need to let a large number of team members go. Potentially the answer will be yes and this is also going to depend on social distancing regulations. A lot of businesses operate with teams in tight confinement. It could be necessary to cut back on numbers to ensure that they are able to social distance effectively.

Of course, this isn’t the only problem related to the workforce. It’s also likely that businesses are going to deal with a higher number of workers going off sick. While this might balance out and ensure that social distancing is possible, it could also leave key talent gaps for certain companies. Services like a construction labour supplier could help here and ensure that industries like this can gain the support that they might desperately need.

We hope this helps you understand some of the key challenges that your business could face in the future. It’s important to note that while these obstacles may seem impossible to deal with, most businesses have been effective at adapting.

For instance, many businesses have near seamlessly switched to a home business model. It would be worth exploring whether this option could suit your company. You might find that it will provide the best solution, allowing your company to remain profitable and keep team members socially distanced. The trick will be to ensure that quality levels also remain and there will undoubtedly be some growing pains to tackle at least at first.

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