Making The Shift

Making The Shift

PROBLEM —— CHALLENGE —— OPPORTUNITY

One of the toughest tasks while facing a crisis or a painful change is what I call “Making the Shift”.

The “shift” centres around two different people having opposite views of what stands in front of them. One person may view a particular situation as a problem, while the other views it as a challenge. The boldest people view the challenge as an opportunity. These are the people who “live to win”.

When people view their situation as a problem, they often become paralysed in their efforts to move forward.

Words commonly associated with problems are: dilemma, anxiety, fear, worry, trouble, threat.

It is imperative that a shift be made and that a person’s thought processes or beliefs convert to thinking of a problem as a challenge.

When someone is able to overcome the fear associated with a problem and views that dilemma as a challenge, his overall belief system allows him to take action.

When this shift occurs and the “problem” is now viewed as a “challenge,” he has an instant ability to start moving forward and overcoming the dilemma.

This is commonly referred to as “taking action”. The pattern of thought now moves from one of fear to one of daring. When a situation is viewed as a challenge, the end result now becomes clearer, with a vision of the desired result.

Words associated with challenge include: overcome, win, test, defy. People respond more assertively when viewing a situation as a “challenge,” as opposed to viewing it as a “problem”.

The final, most exciting part of this shift is when a problem is viewed as an opportunity.

The end result of opportunity is limitless. Opportunity brings: progress, happiness, advancement, and eventual fortune.

A classic example of “The Shift”:

I have a dear friend who I have known for almost my entire lifetime. This gentleman had an amazing career as an independent floor trader in the commodity business. For several years, he had income well in excess of seven figures.

Unfortunately, for him, he had a significant problem. His problem stemmed from his abuse of alcohol. This problem eventually took him and his empire down to its knees.

He came to me with his “problem,” and we quickly agreed that massive action needed to be taken.

When he finally acknowledged that having a problem was causing him to be “stuck,” and was preventing his ability to move forward, he bought into the idea of viewing his “problem” as a “challenge”.

His “challenge” was dealing with his battle with alcoholism and getting his life under control.

To my friend’s credit, he checked himself into a facility that would give him the best chance to win his battle. After several weeks, he was released and continued his challenge with rebuilding his life and dealing with his day-to-day “challenge” of becoming a recovering alcoholic. Because of his strong will and determination, he is now ten years sober. I’m so proud of him – but that is not the end of the story.

My friend decided that the “challenge “was only his beginning. He has now made the massive shift from “problem” to that of “opportunity”. You see, within his world of pain, were many others with the same “problem”. My friend has now leveraged the contacts that he made in his new community of recovered addicts and built a large business in the insurance field. He is clearly in the business of helping people in life–and in business–while enjoying his rise back to the top.

The Shift

PROBLEM —— CHALLENGE —— OPPORTUNITY

I hope you found this information helpful. Let me know how you apply this.

Just one more thing before you go … I’d like to ask you to do one important thing for me – spread the word about this article.

That is all -

David