We all have challenges to face in life.  How we handle those challenges can vary greatly depending on the circumstances and our emotional state at the time.  For example (and this will be the only reference to the world cup this week I promise), the England penalty shoot out this week against Colombia.

If you are not a football person you may not know that England have never won a penalty shoot out in the World Cup.  They have rarely won one in the European cup, but never in the previous 3 World Cup penalty shoot outs.  And in fact, Gareth Southgate, the current England Manager – famously missed his penalty in the 1996 penalty shoot-out against Germany.

So, I can only imagine the challenge that the penalty shoot-out presented for Gareth and the England team (let alone all the fans).

The thing is – they did know about this potential challenge.  It was never a certainty, always a possibility, and the problem with that is that a lot of people deal with potential negative possibilities by hoping they won’t happen.

That is not a great strategy for dealing with challenges.  You see there are a few things that you need in order to face and overcome challenges.  And they are Resilience, Belief and Practice.

A great example of this is the England win – which involved a lot of all of those 3 elements.  Another great example of it is last weekend.

Last weekend I was on stage at an event called Power To Achieve.  That was fantastic, I love speaking from stage because as you know I am on a global mission to help 10 million disheartened souls who are at a crossroads, to go from asking “Why me” to saying, “Why not me!”.  And so, by speaking all over the world I get the opportunity to share that message and connect with people and help them.

But that’s not why this was so great.  The reason last weekend was such a special moment was because also speaking on that stage was one of my  clients –  Tommy.  Now Tommy knows all about challenges.

Tommy was brought up in Liverpool,  on a council estate, and in his words, he could easily have gone down the wrong path in life. However, he avoided that path, found his soul mate, and life looked good. Until……he and his wife lost their baby girl just a few moments after birth. I’m sure you can agree – that’s challenging.  And nothing you can anticipate or prepare for.

So, what did he do?  He rose to the challenge and was driven by his pain to change his life. He trained as a solicitor, opened his own practice and got the big house and the flash car.  And life looked better than good! Until……yes another major challenge….his business partner screwed him over, his wife left him and he ended up on the edge of the River Mersey about to jump.

If you want to find out what happens next, email me and I will send you a link to the video of Tommy on stage at Power To Achieve telling his story.

Clearly – he didn’t jump!

Last weekend was the first time he had spoken on a big stage (800 people) and shared his story.  So, this of course was another challenge in itself. In order to get ready for this challenge, Tommy sent me his thoughts, we shaped that into his amazing story and outlined how he was going to present it, and then he practiced and practiced and practiced.  He sent me videos of him presenting, and then worked on the feedback he got.  Until…..

“And please welcome to the stage ….TOMMY!”

Have you ever felt proud?

As happy as I was to be on that stage myself, I was 10 x prouder to see Tommy get the applause and the connection with the audience that he fully deserved.  Do you think he might have helped inspire a few people in that self-development audience to believe they could face and overcome THEIR challenges?  I bet he did.

Just as England fans will now have a different belief when their team next face a penalty shoot-out, people in the Power to Achieve audience may have a different belief the next time they have to face a challenge.

If you have a challenge that you need some inspiration around and would like to watch Tommy’s story – email me on cheryl@cherylchapman.com and I will send you the link to the video.