You Can Overcome Discouragement

We all get discouraged at one time or another.  Fact is, I wake up discouraged most mornings.  It can take more than a few cups of coffee; it takes remembering what is true, relying on God for strength, and then doing the right things.  I’ve learned that I can overcome discouragement and so can you.

If you believe in yourself, see discouragement as temporary, and handle it in the right way, you can bounce back from nearly anything.  John Maxwell, The Difference Maker

I can do all things through God who gives me strength.  Philippians 4:13

Five Steps to I Am Overcomer

1.  Right Perspective is all about hope.  Maxwell says, take a good look at the whole picture, a short look at the problem, a close look at yourself, a long look at successful people, and a wide look at the possibilities. For me it is all about getting to what and how.  What focuses me on the future. How anchors my faith steps to God. Why locks me in the past.

2.  Right People encourage us with what and how. Seek people who inspire. Avoid those who hang out with why.

3.  Right Words remind us what is true.  I have used simple phrases to pull me out of discouragement.

  • This too shall pass.
  • I can do all things with God.
  • I feel the fear and will do it anyway.
  • I am not what I’ve done, I am what I have overcome.
  • I will do the next indicated thing.

Fill your tool kit with positive words of truth.

4.  Right Expectations help us be  limber when things out of our control don’t go our way.

5.  Right Decisions is about doing the right things. Bad decisions leave us with emotional (and often physical) hangovers.  Goethe wrote, The moment one commits oneself, Providence moves too.  

Believe in yourself. With eyes of hope see your discouragement as temporary. Do the right things. Your positive attitude will be a difference maker for you, and your life an inspiration to others.  You can.