Tips to Overcome Adversity

Apr 30, 2024 | Tip for a Terrific Tuesday

Dr. Bragg shares how to overcome adversity

It’s important to gain skills to overcome adversity. In the past 25 – 30 years that I’ve studied human behavior, I’ve learned that there are 2 ways that people respond when they have a roadblock or a hurdle as it relates to setting goals. Either they NAP, N-A-P, or they NIP, N-I-P.

Those who nap become narrow minded and negative when they are confronted with a roadblock. They become very apathetic, and they have a pity party. And when they have that pity party, they make things very personal, and it causes them to procrastinate. When they procrastinate, they pause because they get overwhelmed, because they are napping, and they cannot get past the roadblock.

Then there’s another group of people that have the same roadblock when they have a goal, and they nip their way through. They navigate and see the big possibilities, the big picture when they’re confronted with a roadblock.

Then ‘i’, they become inquisitive. They ask a lot of questions. They ask for help. They also become Internet lovers so that they could research and see what are the other possibilities of how I can overcome this roadblock. For ‘p’, they take positive action and try to meet positive people that can propel them forward.

Unlike the people who are napping, who are on the treadmill of life, no matter how fast they go, they’re in the same spot. People who NIP are on a marathon of life, and they move through life happy and healthier and get their problems resolved.

The question today is, when you have a roadblock, do you NAP, or do you NIP?

Now if you find that you are napping, then one of the strategies you can use for that is in the morning. When you get up, give yourself some positive self talk because it may be that you are not telling yourself positive things about yourself that can propel you forward.

Sometimes you nap and get in a pity party and make things very personal because guess what? Somebody stops by your desk every morning at work or at home or wherever you are, and they tell you about all the negative things and how you are not good enough to do what you want to do. Well, that’s why the iPhone has a delete button on it.

When they call you with negativity, you need to hit the button that said delete, delete, delete. And then that can help to shift you so that you can move toward nipping and be able to resolve your problems when you have a roadblock.

I hope this framework is beneficial to you, and you think about it. Are you napping, or are you nipping? And I hope that this helps you to overcome the roadblocks that you may be encountering as you try to set your goals.

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