A Lesson In Facing Obstacles

Have you seen the little dinosaur snowboarding video on social media? An adorable four-year-old boy dressed as a dinosaur has a microphone and talks himself through boarding down a mountain. (Good Morning America Video Link) His self-talk is heartwarming.

At one point, he runs into the obstacle of falling down and cannot upright himself. We can all learn from his response to the challenge. He does not take himself too seriously, and he recognizes the obstacle is all part of the journey.

How do you handle obstacles in your life? What is your approach?

As a teacher, I face hundreds of obstacles in a single day. I am constantly forced to change course in order to continue on my path. During the pandemic’s virtual and hybrid teaching, I faced more obstacles than I ever imagined I would have to handle. I had technology issues each and every day. When some could not be remedied, I immediately had to pivot to a completely different plan.

Even now as I teach in-person, when students do not understand an idea, I have present the information in another way. I have to rethink the concept and connect with them differently.

My plans are always being derailed due to obstacles. We are all faced with obstacles in daily life and in trying to achieve long-term goals. What can we do to better equip ourselves for success?

Mindset is everything

Approaching obstacles in a state of constant frustration is pointless. Like the little dinosaur, we need to have a flexible mindset.

When I was teaching my son to ride a bike for the first time, he struggled with balance. He fell off the bike three times and became so frustrated that he quit trying to ride. Despite my encouragement, he refused to get on the bike again for an entire day. He had shut down the possibility of learning to ride. His mindset would not allow him to move forward, and he remained stuck for nearly a week.

He only returned to his bike when he saw a younger neighborhood boy riding without any trouble. I told him, “If he can do it, so can you.” Within the next hour, my son was riding on his own.

Don’t take yourself too seriously

You notice in the video that the little dinosaur makes jokes when he is stuck lying on the ground. He calls himself a “Stuck-A-Saurus”. If we take ourselves too seriously, we can remain stuck.

I was a competitive swimmer for most of my life. During one of my college seasons, I was trying to make a qualifying time for a championship meet in the 1000 yard freestyle. This is a long event, forty lengths of the pool and a little over half a mile. I remember swimming the event during one swim meet and during the last four lengths seeing my coach on the side screaming and waving his hands wildly at me. His signals indicated I was on pace to make the time cut for the meet in this event, so I hustled.

I used his energy to kick, pull, and kick some more. My teammates were following his signal and cheering for me. For the final ten yards, I put my head down and thrashed through the water. My hand hammered into the wall. I excitedly looked up at the board to see my time. I was one-tenth of second too slow. No joke. I swam over half a mile, and I missed the qualifying time by .01 seconds. How does that happen? I shook my head and just started laughing as I looked up at my coach. He was not laughing. However, I kept laughing. How could I do this?

In that moment, I could have been angry and frustrated. I could have cried. I could have stomped around the pool deck. Yet, what good would that have done me? I had other events to swim at that meet. Would that have helped me swim fast? I did not take myself too seriously and to my delight, qualified for the championship meet in another event an hour later.

Sure, we can become frustrated with obstacles and failures. But we cannot take ourselves, or our projects, too seriously. Allow yourself to feel the frustration, but use that as motivation to find a solution and move forward.

Recognize obstacles are part of the journey

No matter what you may try to accomplish, you will face obstacles. Some will be in your control to move, and others will not. The first step to addressing an obstacle is recognizing challenges will appear.

Some of us expect that life should always go as planned and are shocked when our plans are derailed. Think of the pandemic. How many obstacles appeared in your journey when you were in lockdown? I had plenty! We all had to recognize these obstacles were part of our life and maneuver around or through them to accomplish our goals.

We had to rethink, reimagine, rework. How would restaurants make money on alcohol? And the to-go cocktail was born! How would non-essential stores make money if they were required to be closed? They began delivering goods and services to our homes rather than expecting us to enter the store. How would gyms survive? Many decided to run workout classes outdoors in their parking lots.

Obstacles occur, but they can help us to innovate and create. We must recognize the possibilities as they occur and take action. We must accept we are not immune to challenges but can power through them.

As the snowboarding dinosaur nonchalantly sings to himself, “I won’t fall. Maybe I will.”