how to deal with challenges in life essay

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How to Write a Personal Challenge Essay (with Examples)

A personal challenge essay offers a singular chance for introspection and personal development. It gives you a chance to consider your past, face difficulties, and demonstrate your tenacity. This essay structure enables you to communicate your ideas and experiences with others, regardless of whether you’ve overcome hardship, dealt with a tricky circumstance, or chased an audacious goal. You’ll walk you through the phases of writing an engaging personal challenge essay in this in-depth guide, complete with samples that demonstrate the procedure.

Understanding the Personal Challenge Essay

The Personal challenges in life as a student essay asks you to describe an instance or time in your life when you had to overcome challenges, setbacks, or barriers. It’s an opportunity to demonstrate your resilience, your capacity to face adversity, and the lessons you’ve picked up along the road. This kind of article necessitates reflection, sincerity, and skillful narrative.

Selecting a Meaningful Challenge

It’s important to pick the correct challenge to write about. Think about Personal challenges in life as a student essay that profoundly influenced your development, principles, or attitude on life. It can have been an obstacle you overcame in your studies, relationships, sense of self, or any other area of your life. The task should have personal significance for you and provide information that your audience can relate to.

Structuring Your Personal Challenge Essay

To effectively portray your experiences, feelings, and growth, writing an engaging personal challenge essay involves careful thought and a well-organized format. The following steps will show you how to organize your essay such that it presents a logical and interesting story:

Introduction:

Beginning your essay with an attention-grabbing hook that draws the reader in and highlights the topic of the difficulty you’ll be exploring is a good idea. This might be a provocative inquiry, a moving saying, a detailed account, or a first-hand account associated with your issue.

Background & Context:

Make sure the reader has all the background knowledge they need to comprehend your dilemma. Describe the context, surroundings, and any other pertinent information that establishes the scene for your narrative. Additionally, you have the choice to ask for assistance from PhD thesis writing help if you run into difficulties when writing the background and context of your thesis or dissertation or if you are unsure owing to a lack of experience. They can offer helpful assistance to improve the caliber of your work.

The Challenge:

Describe the challenge in detail in a portion of your essay. When describing the challenges, difficulties, or setbacks you encountered, be descriptive and in-depth.

Your Reaction and Result:

Write about how you responded to the challenge in this part. What steps have you taken? Did you make crucial decisions, prepare a plan, or ask for assistance? Be sure to emphasize your ability to solve problems, tenacity, and any other traits that may have helped you overcome the obstacle.

Growth and Reflection:

Consider the encounter and share what you took away from it. What effects did the challenge have on your emotions, mind, and possibly even body? What new understandings did you get about who you are, your values, or your outlook on life? Describe how you overcame the obstacle to grow personally, discover yourself, or alter your perspective.

Takeaways & Lessons:

The exact lessons you took away from overcoming the obstacle should be highlighted. What priceless knowledge, abilities, or traits did you acquire as a result? Describe how these teachings have shaped your current behavior, choices, or attitude in life.

Conclusion:

Writing a compelling conclusion that connects everything can help you to conclude your essay. Write a summary of your shared journey, highlighting your personal development and new perspectives.

Include a Call to Action (Optional):

Depending on the nature of your issue, you might want to include a call to action that prompts the reader to reflect on their own issues, take action, or adopt a particular attitude.

After you’ve finished writing the essay, take some time to review and make any necessary changes. Check that the grammar, spelling, and punctuation in your writing are correct, as well as the flow.

Maintain You’re Authentic Voice Throughout the Essay:

While it’s crucial to follow a structured methodology, don’t forget to preserve your authentic voice. Remain sincere, honest, and personal in your writing. Your unique perspective and emotions will lend greater authenticity to your writing and make it more compelling. By adhering to the instructions outlined in this comprehensive guide, you’ll effectively organize your personal challenge essay. This approach will skillfully lead your readers through your journey, captivating their attention and leaving a memorable impression. Furthermore, if you find it challenging to maintain a systematic approach, consider seeking assistance from master thesis writing help. Their expertise can aid you in completing your work with precision and coherence.

Don’ts and Dos

Be upfront and honest when discussing your experiences. Do emphasize your development and lessons acquired. To keep the reader’s attention, employ colorful language and descriptions. Don’t make up or embellish details. Instead of blaming others for the difficulty, concentrate on your solution. Choose a challenge that had a significant influence rather than one that was inconsequential.

Examples of Personal Challenge Essays

Following are the Personal challenge essay examples:

Overcoming Academic Challenges:

Navigating the challenges we face in life essay can be a transformative journey that leads to personal growth and self-discovery. A prime example of this is when I confronted a series of academic setbacks. I realized that my ingrained fear of failing was standing in the way of my development. I, however, resisted allowing this fear to direct my course. I started a quest for self-improvement with pure tenacity. I reached out for guidance and support, shedding light on the power of seeking assistance when needed.

Overcoming Fear:

For instance, I had always been terrified of public speaking, but I had to face my phobia to present in front of a large crowd. I overcame my anxiety about public speaking over time with practice and confidence, and I also acquired speaking abilities that I still use today.

Dealing with Personal Loss:

Losing a loved one was a difficult emotional experience that altered my outlook on relationships and life. I learned the value of cherishing moments and helping others in need through my grief and contemplation.

Examples of challenges you have overcome as a student essay

I have encountered a range of challenges as a student, which has pushed my perseverance, adaptability, and resilience to the test. Even though they occasionally proved to be challenging, these obstacles ultimately helped me become a better and more capable individual. Here are a few instances of obstacles I overcame in my academic career:

Time Management Challenges:

Juggling schoolwork, assignments, extracurricular activities, and personal obligations can be difficult. There were times when I struggled to adequately manage my time, which resulted in missed deadlines and frustration. To overcome this difficulty, I started adopting time management strategies like making a thorough calendar, establishing priorities, and breaking work down into smaller, more manageable pieces. I became more organized about my obligations over time, which led to increased productivity and decreased stress. Furthermore, many students pursuing careers in the medical field face similarly demanding schedules that make it challenging to meet deadlines. In such cases, they often turn to nursing research paper writing services to ensure the quality and timeliness of their assignments.

Academic Setbacks:

It was demoralizing to experience academic setbacks, such as earning lower grades than expected. I decided to take advantage of these setbacks as chances for improvement rather than giving in to self-doubt. I requested input from my lecturers, made note of my weaknesses, and put focused study techniques into practice. I was able to improve my academic performance and regain my confidence by persevering and being willing to learn from my failures.

Language Barrier:

Navigating English as a second language introduced a unique set of challenges, especially in terms of effective communication and the completion of writing assignments. In essays and presentations, I often encountered hurdles in articulating my thoughts coherently and concisely. To overcome this hurdle, I actively expanded my vocabulary, engaged in consistent reading and writing exercises, and actively sought input from peers and professors. Furthermore, this drive to enhance my linguistic abilities not only improved my communication skills but also bolstered my confidence in expressing myself in academic and professional settings. My determination to conquer these language-related challenges demonstrates my commitment to growth and adaptability, qualities that I believe would make me a strong candidate for the Harvard Scholarship Essay .

Dynamics of Group Projects:

Due to the various work habits, schedules, and perspectives held by the group members, collaborative projects have occasionally proven to be difficult. I adopted efficient communication techniques, such as active listening and open discussion, to handle these circumstances. By praising each team member’s abilities and accomplishments, I helped to create a more effective and pleasant working atmosphere.

Personal Well-Being and Health:

It can be difficult to maintain a good balance between your personal needs and your academic obligations. I have occasionally overlooked my needs, which has resulted in burnout and a decline in drive. I gave exercise, wholesome eating, and regular breaks top priority since I understood how important self-care was. This all-encompassing strategy not only increased my general well-being but also sharpened my attention and increased my output. These examples collectively constitute my challenges in life as a student essay. They serve as valuable lessons that offer insights on how to navigate and overcome various situations.

How to Revise and Improve Your Essay

For instance, if you are given a topic such as “Essay on Environmental Problems and Their Solutions” and you’re not well-versed in it, it’s advisable to invest time in research. This will enable you to create quality content for your essay. After writing your personal challenge essay, it’s essential to engage in the editing and revision process. Ensure that your essay flows logically and that your ideas are well-organized. Edit for clarity, grammar, and punctuation. If you’re seeking a comprehensive perspective, consider seeking feedback from peers, professors, or mentors.

Frequently Asked Questions

Final thoughts.

Writing a personal challenge essay offers you the chance to share your unique journey and inspire others through your resilience and progress you can create an engaging tale that engrosses your readers by choosing a pertinent challenge, using a solid essay structure, and remaining honest. It’s crucial to remember that your essay about a personal issue demonstrates both your capacity for self-reflection and personal development in addition to your capacity for overcoming challenges. For those who face challenges in managing their academic tasks, there are online homework writing services available that can provide valuable assistance and support.

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How To Level Up Your Overcoming Challenges Essay

This article was written based on the information and opinions presented by Robert Crystal and Kaila Barber in a CollegeVine livestream. You can watch the full livestream for more info.

What’s Covered:

Components of a challenge-based essay, how to structure your essay, challenge-based essay tips.

In this article, we cover ways that you can revise challenge-based personal statements to help highlight your own skills, values, interests, and qualities.

For students who have faced challenges, writing a challenge-based personal statement could be a good option. The challenge-based essay is made up of three main pieces: challenges and effects, steps you took to overcome your challenge, and what you learned.

Clear and Compelling Challenges and Effects

When writing a challenge-based essay, the first step is to make sure that you write about the challenge and its effects clearly and compellingly. You want to avoid leaving any room for interpretation from the reader by simply and concisely outlining your challenges.

Keeping your challenge concise will allow you to show your reader what you went through and how it impacted you, while also leaving space for you to show what you did and what you learned.

For example, if in your essay you mention that you struggled with your mental health, but you don’t provide any other details, the reader will either make their own assumptions about your experience, or they could just skim through your essay without making any assumptions at all. To avoid the challenge of being misinterpreted, it is important for you to be specific about what you have faced.

Steps You Took To Overcome Your Challenge

The next step in a challenge-based essay is to make sure that you’ve elaborated on what you did to overcome your challenge. While your challenge is important, the admissions officer is more curious about what you did to overcome your challenge and the steps that you took to make your situation better. 

What You Learned

The last part of a challenge based-essay is a section in which you elaborate on what you learned. Here, you should build upon what you did to overcome your challenge by including what you learned from overcoming it. This is your teaching moment to show that you reflect and learn from your experiences and environment.

As you write, keep in mind that each component should make up about one-third of your essay. This is important because it is common for students to focus mainly on what the challenge is and write 45% to 50% of the essay talking about the challenge and its impact. 

Instead, you should split your essay into thirds, with challenges and effects, what you did, and what you learned each taking up approximately one-third of your total word count. Approaching your essay in this way provides you with two-thirds of the essay to show your values and personal growth. 

There are several handy tips that can help you write a challenge-based essay like this. These tips include, in addition to writing clearly and concisely to build a compelling narrative, using active verbs, including your insights, and connecting everything back to your values.

Use Active Verbs

When talking about what you did to overcome the challenge, it is important to use active verbs. Examples of active verbs include words like customized, designed, facilitated, recruited, and restructured. Active verbs clearly and specifically show the reader what you did, and these are most crucial to include when you write about the steps you took to overcome an obstacle.

Include a Strong Insight and Connect to Your Values

During the “what you learned” section, make sure that the insights that you include are strong. Strong insights demonstrate to the reader how you’ve made meaning from the challenge that you’ve faced, and are an opportunity for you to showcase your values, self-awareness and critical thinking.

This essay should be written in a way that makes your core values clear to the reader. One exercise that you can do to help find connections and linkages to your core values is to consider guiding questions like the following: 

• What did you do as a result of your challenge? 
• What moment did something change for you? 
• Did you take responsibility for anything you hadn’t before? 
• Did you start paying for things? 
• Did you learn a new piece of technology? 
• Did you help someone or did someone help you?

As you write and revise, you can use these guiding questions, and questions like them, to reflect and become more aware of your own core values. You may find that once you clarify and include more of your own values, your insights are strengthened.

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

How to Write the Overcoming Challenges Essay + Example

April 17, 2023

At some point, most college-bound students are tasked with writing an overcoming challenges essay. The prompt crops up in various forms, as a supplemental short essay about overcoming a challenge, and in as the main essay itself.

Some students may feel inclined to write about a dramatic experience (say, spotting a grizzly bear outside the kitchen window), mistaking the drama of the moment for a significant challenge. Others may get to work, only to realize they don’t have much to say about the time they got a C in P.E. (that dreaded frisbee unit). Students who’ve overcome unspeakable difficulties, like a death in the family, may find that reducing the tragedy to 650 words feels insufficient, or worse—as if they’re attempting to profit from suffering. One or two students may stare down the blank computer screen as their entire existence shrinks to the size of a 12-point font. Should they write about the challenge of writing about the challenge of writing an overcoming challenges essay??

Don’t worry. Focusing first on how to tackle the essay will help any student decide what they should write about. In fact, how the essay is written will also prove more influential than the challenge itself in determining the strength of the essay.

Decoding the Prompt

Let’s take a look at the overcoming challenges essay question included among the seven 2023-24 Common App Essay Prompts :

The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

Notice how the prompt places an immediate emphasis on the “lessons we take,” rather than on the obstacles themselves, or any potential success. This is because the challenge itself often says less about the student than the way the student chose to tackle it, or the way they now reflect on it. In other words, obstacles often come at us randomly; it’s our personal response to the circumstances which reveals something of who we are.

While studying a prompt for clues, it’s helpful to think from the perspective of the admissions officer (the essay reader). What can they glean from an overcoming challenges essay?  A lot, actually. A thoughtfully written essay may tell them about the student’s personality, as well as things like problem-solving techniques, rigor, persistence, creativity, and courage. These insights can work to prove to the admissions officers that the student has what it takes to overcome challenges in college, too. These future challenges may range from the inevitable academic obstacles that occur with heavy courseloads, to social and moral challenges that arise as college students form their adult identities.

Picking Your Topic: A Brainstorming Activity

With the question of identity in mind, let’s now approach the overcoming challenges essay backwards, by brainstorming the final message the student wants it to contain.

For this three-part exercise, the student will first set a five-minute timer. With the clock ticking, they’ll jot down character traits, values, and any descriptive words or terms that say something about who they are. If stumped, change perspective. The student may imagine what their best friends, parents, coaches and siblings would say. (For example, tenacious , logical , scientific , peacemaker .) Even mild criticism can be helpful, as long as it’s not cruel. While a student’s brother may call him a “perfectionist,” perhaps this word will trigger other relevant words, like persistent and detail-oriented.

Next, the student will set the timer for another five minutes, pull out a second sheet of paper, and jot down any challenges, obstacles, setbacks, failures, and achievements that come to mind. Don’t hold back here or overanalyze. (For example: underdog at state swim meet , getting lost on the family hike , petitioning for a school compost system …)

Lastly, the student will place the two pages side by side, and draw lines between the items on the list wherever connections occur. One student may draw lines between persistent , curious , gamer , passionate about electronics , and saved the day during the power outage. Another set of lines might connect caring, observant, creative thinker , and helped sister leave abusive cult . Whatever ideas are sparked here, the goal is to identify which challenges will demonstrate something essential about the student to an admissions officer.

Topics to Avoid

The internet is rife with advice on what not to write when writing an overcoming challenges essay. Yet this advice can be confusing, or downright hypocritical. For instance, some may advise against writing about death. Yet a student who lost their father at an early age may be capable of writing a poignant essay about their search for an alternative father figure, and how they found one in their soccer coach.

I suggest avoiding guides on what not to write until after the student has done a thorough round of brainstorming. Otherwise, they risk censoring themselves too early, and may reject a promising idea. Once they’ve narrowed down their list to three ideas or less, they may want to check our guide on College Application Essay Topics to Avoid .

The reason why certain types of overcoming challenges essays miss the mark is that they emphasize the wrong aspect of the experience, which turns the topic into a cliché. While it’s generally a good idea to avoid trivial topics (again, that C in P.E.), any topic has the potential to be compelling, if it’s animated through personal opinions, insight, and description. Details bring an experience to life. Structure and reflection make an essay convincing. In other words, how the story is told will determine whether or not the topic is worth writing about.

So, rather than avoid specific topics, consider avoiding these scenarios: if you can’t show the essay to your best friend or grandmother, it’s probably not ready to show a college admissions officer. If you must write a clichéd topic, don’t choose a typical structure.

Techniques to Hone

Techniques that animate an overcoming challenges essay are the same ones used in storytelling. Think setting, visuals, sounds, dialogue, physical sensations, and feelings. “Showing” instead of “telling.” Crafting the essay with these inner and external details will bring the challenge to life, and catch the reader’s attention.

Another technique which works well when trying to avoid the trappings of cliché involve subverting the reader’s expectations. In storytelling terms, this is a plot twist. The student who got a C in P.E. may actually have a stellar essay on their hands, if they can break away from the “bad grade” trope (working harder to improve their grade). Perhaps this student’s story is actually about how, while sitting on the bleachers and not participating in the game, they found themselves watching the frisbee spin through the air, and realized they had a deep interest in the movement of astronomical bodies.

Some of the strongest overcoming challenges essays demonstrate what students have learned about themselves, rather than what they’ve learned about the obstacle they confronted. These essays may show how the student has come to see themselves differently, or how they’ve decided to change, thanks to the challenge they faced. These essays work because the reflection is natural and even profound, based on the student’s self-awareness.

Writing the Overcoming Challenges Essay, or Drafts, Drafts, Drafts

Everyone writes differently, some by outlining (never a bad idea), some by free-styling (good for capturing sensations and memories), some by lighting a candle—but don’t procrastinate too much. The only “must” is to revise. After a first draft, the student should begin to look for several things:

1) Clarity and Detail. Is the challenge recounted with precision? Is it personal?

2) Structure. Consider mapping the structure, to visualize it better. Does the structure suit the story? Can it be changed for clarity, or to keep the reader more engaged?

3) Cliché. Identify words, sentences, and ideas that are dull or repetitive. Mark them up, and in the next draft, find ways to rewrite, subvert, condense, and delete.

4) Lesson Learned. Has the student reflected adequately on the lesson they learned from overcoming a challenge? To add more reflection, students might ask themselves what they have felt and thought about the experience since. Would they do something differently, if faced with the same challenge? Has their understanding of the experience evolved over time?

By the final draft, the experience and the reflection should feel equally weighted. To get there, it may take five or six drafts.

Overcoming Challenges Essay Sample

The Happiness Hotline

First there were reports. Then we were told to stop socializing, go inside, wait. Covid struck. Everyone knows what ensued. It probably looked different from where we were all (separately) standing, even though we faced the same thing. Those first weeks, I stood at my bedroom window. It was dark by early evening in Oregon. The weirdest part—after the fact that we were collectively sharing the loneliest experience of our lives—was the silence.

… it was really quiet.

So quiet, I could hear my mom sigh downstairs. (So quiet, I couldn’t remember if I’d hummed aloud, or if I’d just heard myself in my head.) When I looked out the window, I could hear the stoplight at the end of our street. Green to yellow. Click.

Before going on, you should know three things. First, this is not a Covid essay. This is about melancholy, and the “sadness that has taken on lightness,” to quote Italo Calvino. Second, from my bedroom window, I can see down a row of oak trees, past the hospital, to my friend Carlo’s house. Third, Carlo is a jazz singer. Maybe that sounds pretentious, a freshman kid being a jazz singer, but that’s Carlo, and I wouldn’t be me without Carlo being Carlo. He’s someone who appreciates the unhinged rhythm of a Charlie Parker tune. He’s an extrovert who can bring introverts like me out of my shell. He convinced me to learn trombone, and together we riff in the after-school jazz club.

In the first month of the pandemic, we called each other nightly to talk rap albums, school stuff. At Carlo’s house, he could hear a white-crowned sparrow. He could also hear his parents talking numbers behind the bathroom door. The death toll was mounting. The cost of living was going up too. As the month wore on, I began to hear something else in our calls, in the way Carlo paused, or forgot what he was saying. Carlo was scared. He felt sad, isolated, and without his bright energy, I too, felt utterly alone.

Overcoming Challenges Essay Sample (Continued)

After some dark days, I realized that to help ourselves we needed to help others. It was pretty obvious the more I thought about it. People are social creatures, supposedly, even introverts. Maybe our neighbors needed to remember the noisiness of life.

We built a happiness hotline. That sounds fancy, though essentially, we provided three-way calls on my parents’ landline. The harder part involved making flyers and putting them up around town, in places people were still going. Grocery stores, the post office. We made a TikTok account, and then—the phone rang. Our first caller.

For months, if you called in, you could talk to us about your days in lockdown. People went really deep about the meaning of life, and we had to learn on the spot how to respond. I’d become a journalist and a therapist before becoming a sophomore. After chatting, the caller would request a song, and if we knew how to play it, we would. If not, we improvised.

Now we’re seniors in high school. Carlo visits the hospital with band members. As for myself, I’ve been working on a community music book, compiling our callers’ favorite tunes. I don’t want to forget how important it felt to make these connections. Our callers taught me that loneliness is a bit like a virus, a bit like a song. Even when it stops it can come back to haunt you, as a new variant or an old refrain. Still, sadness can take on lightness when voices call through the dark: sparrows, friends, strangers. I learned I’m good at listening into the silence. Listening isn’t only a passive stance, but an open line of receiving.

Analysis of the Overcoming Challenges Essay Sample

This student uses their musical passion to infuse the essay with vivid detail. There’s a focus on sound throughout, from the bird to the stoplight. Then there are the callers, and the clever way the student conceived of breaking through the silence. The narrator’s voice sharpens the piece further, elevating a clichéd Covid essay to a personal story of self-discovery.

In fact, the essay briefly breaks with structure to tell the reader that this is not a Covid essay. Although techniques like this should be used sparingly, it works here by grabbing the reader’s attention. It also allows the student to organize their thoughts on the page, before moving the plot along.

Outwardly, the student is overcoming the challenge of loneliness in a time of quarantine. Yet there seems to be an inner, unspoken challenge as well, that of coming to terms with the student’s introverted personality. The essay’s reflection occurs in the final paragraph, making the essay experience-heavy. However, clues woven throughout point to the reflection that will come. Details like the Italo Calvino quote hint at the later understanding of how to alleviate loneliness. While some readers might prefer more development, the various themes are threaded throughout, which makes for a satisfying ending.

A Last Word on the Short Essay About Overcoming Challenges

The short essay about overcoming a challenge requires the same steps as a longer one. To write it, follow the same brainstorming activity, then focus more on condensing and summarizing the experience. Students who’ve already written a longer overcoming challenges essay can approach the short essay about overcoming a challenge by streamlining. Instead of deleting all the extra bits, keep two interesting details that will flavor the essay with something memorable and unique.

• College Essay

Kaylen Baker

With a BA in Literary Studies from Middlebury College, an MFA in Fiction from Columbia University, and a Master’s in Translation from Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis, Kaylen has been working with students on their writing for over five years. Previously, Kaylen taught a fiction course for high school students as part of Columbia Artists/Teachers, and served as an English Language Assistant for the French National Department of Education. Kaylen is an experienced writer/translator whose work has been featured in Los Angeles Review, Hybrid, San Francisco Bay Guardian, France Today, and Honolulu Weekly, among others.

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How To Face & Overcome Challenges In Life With Confidence

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Essay on Challenges In Life

Students are often asked to write an essay on Challenges In Life in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Challenges In Life

Understanding life’s challenges.

Life is like a game with many levels. Some levels are easy, and some are hard. Challenges are the hard parts we all face. They can be big, like moving to a new school, or small, like learning to tie your shoes. But no matter what, they help us grow.

Types of Challenges

There are different kinds of challenges. Some are about doing things, like passing a tough test. Others are about feeling things, like being sad when a pet is sick. Each one teaches us something new.

Overcoming Challenges

To beat these tough parts, we need tools. Friends, family, and teachers are like our helpers. They give us advice and cheer us on. Sometimes, we also need to be brave and keep trying, even if we fail at first.

Learning from Challenges

When we overcome a challenge, we become stronger. We learn that even when things are hard, we can get through them. And the next time we face a hard level, we remember we can win if we do not give up.

250 Words Essay on Challenges In Life

What are challenges.

Challenges are tough situations that test our strength, patience, and skills. They can be like climbing a steep hill or solving a hard math problem. Everyone faces these tough spots at some point in life, whether they are young or old.

Life throws different kinds of hard times at us. Some are like puzzles we need to work out, like getting a good grade in a subject that is not easy for us. Others might be about dealing with people, like making new friends after moving to a new school. Then there are those that touch our hearts, like losing a pet or someone we love.

Why Challenges Are Important

Even though they are tough, challenges help us grow. They teach us to be strong and to keep trying even when things get hard. They also make us smarter because we learn new things when we try to overcome them. Imagine playing a video game; the levels get harder, but you get better at playing.

To beat these tough times, we need to stay positive and believe in ourselves. We can also ask for help from our family, friends, or teachers. Remember, it’s okay to fail sometimes because that’s how we learn. The most important thing is to never give up and keep pushing forward.

Challenges are a part of life, but they don’t have to stop us. They are like tests that make us stronger and smarter. By facing them with courage and help from others, we can overcome them and be proud of what we have achieved.

500 Words Essay on Challenges In Life

What are life’s challenges.

Life is like a road with many signs, turns, and bumps. Challenges are the tough parts of this road. They are like puzzles or tests that we all face as we grow up. These tough parts help us learn and become stronger. Think of a video game where each level gets harder, but as you play, you get better at the game.

There are many different kinds of challenges. Some are like mountains, big and hard to climb, such as when someone in our family gets sick. Others are like stones in our shoe, small but annoying, like getting a bad grade or having a fight with a friend. There are also good challenges, like trying to win a race or getting a high score on a test. These kinds make us excited and eager to do our best.

Challenges can be scary and make us feel like giving up. But they are very important for several reasons. First, they teach us new things. When we work to solve a problem, we learn. Second, they make us stronger. Just like lifting weights makes muscles stronger, facing problems makes our mind stronger. Third, they show us what we are good at and where we need to get better.

Getting Through Tough Times

When we face a hard time, it can feel like being stuck in a dark room trying to find the light switch. The key to finding the light is to keep calm and not give up. We can ask for help from our family, friends, or teachers. They can give us advice or just be there to listen. We can also break the problem into smaller parts and deal with each part one by one.

Learning From Mistakes

Sometimes, when we try to solve a problem, we make mistakes. This is normal and part of learning. Mistakes are like signs that tell us which way not to go. By understanding what went wrong, we can try again in a better way. Remember, even famous people like Thomas Edison made many mistakes before they succeeded.

Staying Positive

Staying cheerful and hopeful is like having a shield in a battle. It helps protect us from giving up. We can stay positive by thinking about good things, like what we are thankful for, or by doing things we enjoy. Also, talking to people who make us laugh or feel loved can make a huge difference.

In conclusion, life’s challenges are the tough parts of the road we all walk. They come in different sizes and can be scary. But they are also teachers that help us learn and become stronger. Getting through these times can be hard, but with help, patience, and a positive attitude, we can overcome them. And remember, it’s okay to make mistakes. Each challenge we face is a step that helps us grow into the best version of ourselves.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

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10 Ways How to Overcome Challenges Life Throws at You

Life is full of its ups and downs. One day, you may feel like you have it all figured out. Then, in a moment’s notice, you’ve been thrown a curve ball. You’re not alone in these feelings. Everyone has to face their own set of challenges. Learning how to overcome challenges will help you stay centered and remain calm under pressure.

Everyone has their own preferences for how to face a challenge in life. However, there are a few good tips and tricks to follow when the going gets tough. Take your pick from the following list!

Photo by  Rémi Walle  on  Unsplash

10 ways to overcome challenges in life, 1. make a plan.

While you don’t know what is going to happen in the future, you can always plan ahead. Look at the patterns in your life and see what challenges you’ve struggled with. Assess the optimal outcomes and make a plan for how you can achieve them.If you work somewhere and can anticipate the types of challenges you may face, then you can plan ahead. This is the same for students in school . If a challenge is time management , then you can learn and plan for calendar management, for example.

2. Know You’re Not Alone

Every person in this world has their low points. Some may handle or even hide it better than others. But the truth is, whatever you are going through, there are others who have been through it too. You’re not alone. Try to reach out to your community and network. Speak your feelings and express your concerns in all settings of your life.

3. Ask For Help

You’re not alone, so you can find help. There’s no need to feel ashamed for asking for help. Whether you choose to rely on a loved one, a stranger, a mentor, or a friend, there are people who want to help you succeed .

4. Feel Your Feelings

By masking your feelings, they are not going to go away. Rather, feelings become trapped energy and can even have negative health consequences when they are ignored. Take some time to feel what you feel. This could come in the form of meditation . Or, if you’d rather write down what you feel, writing can be a therapeutic and cathartic experience.When you feel and share your feelings, you may also be able to see your situation in a new light. This exercise could lead you to come up with novel solutions and overcome any challenge at hand.

5. Accept Support

Asking for help is only one side of the coin. On the other side of the coin, you have to be open and willing to accept support . People who come to your aid truly do care about you. Be open to receiving help when you need it.

6. Help Others

The old adage goes, “What you give is what you get.” If you’ve been through a situation or have advice for someone you know who is going through a tough time, be sure to help out! Helping others not only benefits them, but it can also help you feel happier yourself.

7. Think Big

It can be easy to let yourself think small because of the fear of failure, or even the fear of making a decision. But, to accomplish great things in life, you have to be open to taking risks. With whatever challenges may arise, always think and dream big. That way, you will achieve more than you could have ever imagined. Try not to let your thoughts get in your own way.

8. Positive Mindset

What you think becomes your reality. Train your mind to think positively. This will take both time and practice. It begins with mental awareness. You can practice awareness through mindfulness techniques and meditation. When you get good at acknowledging your thoughts and letting them pass, you can stop negative thoughts in their tracks.

9. Don’t Give Up

When a challenge arises, be it a big test in school or an upcoming running race, don’t give up! Persistence is a huge key to overcoming challenges. Giving up means that you will neither overcome the challenge nor learn from it. Power through challenges by asking for support, feeling your feelings, and making a plan to work through it.

10. Work Smart, Not Hard

Generally, there is more than one way to get something done. However, there’s always just one optimal way or best way of doing it. To work smarter rather than harder, start by working backward. Outline and define your goal. Then, plan the process for how to get there. Perform research to see how others who have come before you have done it. Take count of your own skills and ideas for how you may be able to do it better. Then, stick to your path and get to work!

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A 4-step method for overcoming challenges.

Want to try a technique for overcoming challenges that Buddha himself once taught? This four-step method could help you a lot!

1. Accept and Let Go:

Accept where you are now and what you have. This is your life, at this time. While it’s temporary, accepting it will help you to let go of stress, anxiety, and fear. Meditation is one of the best ways to learn and practice acceptance.

2. Observe and Decide:

When you face a particular challenge, take a step away from your feelings to make a plan. While it’s important to still feel your feelings, when deciding how to act, you want to be objective as possible.

3. Face Fears and Act:

Taking action is one of the biggest steps in overcoming challenges. It’s likely that a big part of whatever you’re facing feels like a challenge because you have an underlying fear. Try to recognize and define what you fear in the situation. Then, you can act to mitigate that fear.

4. Practice Gratitude:

Ultimately, we tend to exist in our comfort zones. So, when something new happens or is presented, we may feel like it’s hard to deal with. By practicing gratitude, you can reframe your definition of a challenge. You will also be happier overall in your present moment.

The Bottom Line

Learning how to deal with challenges takes time, persistence, and a positive attitude. No matter your life situation, the hard times will happen. But, with the right mindset and practice, you will be able to overcome them every time and grow in the process!

Related Articles

Essays About Challenges: Top 11 Examples and Prompts

We come across many challenges we must endure throughout life. If you want to write essays about challenges, start by reading some of our top essay examples.

Everyone has had to deal with obstacles or challenges at some point. Some people can overcome hurdles with confidence and bravery, while many others have difficulty trying to face them. However, the challenges we have faced are, without a doubt, a central part of who we are today. Overcoming challenges can make you a better person. The lessons you learn from them are essential for future success, and as with all other experiences, these challenges help form you into the person you are today. They can also be exciting to some, as they test your skills and capabilities. 

If you are writing essays about challenges, look at our featured essay examples below. 

1. Personal Challenges by Delores Goodwin

2. life’s struggles make us stronger – and happier – if we let them by helen g. rousseau, 3. how to overcome your challenges with openness and courage by tony fahkry.

• 4.  ​​Life: full of challenges by Vaibhav Jain

5. Challenges Facing Public Schools by Lewis Rios

1. challenges i have faced, 2. lessons learned from challenges, 3. how to change your attitude towards challenge, 4. helping others overcome challenges and adversity, 5. challenges faced in your home country, 6. challenges the world currently faces.

“A challenge will tell an individual more about themselves than anything else in life. Am I a quitter? How much adversity can I take? How badly do I want this? What is my breaking point? Where does my loyalty end? Challenge can ask us hundreds of questions and forces us to answer honestly. Challenges end the talk and make one walk the walk. Create challenges for yourself, it will cause you to see who you really are.”

Challenges are a necessity of life despite the hardship and stress they come with, and Goodwin discusses this in her essay. A great accomplishment cannot be made without a challenge. Without challenges, one becomes complacent, so we must keep facing challenges to keep us mentally and physically strong. Goodwin encourages readers to challenge themselves more to help them delve deeper into who they are. For more, check out these essays about life challenges .

“Every human being has been in this place at one time or another. Sometimes depression can make it more difficult to get away from the edge but any spark of light or encouragement should be used to seek help physically, emotionally or spiritually. When we face a crisis, it effects the all of who we are and thus must be met with our total beings.”

Rousseau reflects on overcoming adversity, recalling when she met with two former coworkers. They talked about their lives, families, and struggles during lunch. They could bond over their shared positive, confident mindset, allowing them to overcome challenges. Rousseau clarifies that if you put your mind to it, you can overcome anything and closes her essay with two of her poems about resilience. 

“Instead of running away from your emotions, lean into them and experience them fully. This transforms your fears and anxiety into empowering emotions. Let go of what you believe life owes you. It owes you nothing since you are the expression of life. Rise to your challenges armed with courage and an open mind. Remain confident that your experiences are serving your personal growth.”

Fahkry explains how to face challenges without stress and suffering. He reminds us that, first of all, we have free will, so we do not have to feel the way we do if we put our minds to it. We cannot change our reality once it is already there, so feeling sad or angry for prolonged periods is useless. If we change our mindsets for the better, we can overcome all adversity. Our fear and anxiety can be turned into confidence, empowerment, and courage. Check out these essays about competition .

4.  ​​ Life: full of challenges by Vaibhav Jain

“A person who has not encountered difficulties in life can never achieve success. Difficulties test the courage, patience, perseverance, and true character of a human being. Adversity and hardships make a person strong and ready to face the challenges of life with equanimity. There is no doubt that there can be no gain without pain. It is only when one toils and sweats it out that success is nourished and sustained.”

In his short essay, Jain writes about the wonders of life as well as its challenges. He likens life to a bed of roses, complete with painful thorns. In general, life is good, but adversity and challenges are prevalent. These two concepts seem different, but one cannot exist without the other. As with the previous essays, Jain explains that challenges make us stronger and help us feel successful and relieved: “there can be no gain without pain.” Without challenges, we take the better parts of life for granted; if we accept and overcome our struggles, we can live life to the fullest.

“In conclusion, public educational institutions experience many challenges ranging from budgetary constraints, student violence and low parental involvement. Much research needs to be done to establish why these problems exist in the first place and lasting solutions for these institutions.”

Rios’ essay explores challenges in an education system; he proposes research on the constraints of the U.S. public school system. Public schools face several economic and social challenges, such as insufficient funding and lack of parental involvement due to many students’ working-class backgrounds. Rios wishes for more research on these problems and possible solutions. 

Writing Prompts On Essays about Challenges

In this essay, write about a challenge you previously encountered and how you dealt with it. Provide context by describing the events leading up to it, how it happened, and, most importantly, how you overcame it. Then, describe how you felt after- were you relieved, stressed, or tired? You can also discuss how this experience has affected you today. 

Challenges can teach us a lot about life and the world. Reflect on a challenge you faced previously and what you learned from it, whether positive or negative. As with the previous prompt, feel free to include ways in which the lesson you learned affects you today. 

How can you best handle the challenges you may face? Describe the ideal attitude one would need to overcome complex challenges. For example, what qualities would you need to have- courage, prudence, or sensibility? Regardless of what type of attitude you choose to write about, your essay will be substantive if you can adequately support your argument. 

In your essay, you can write about a time you were able to help someone facing a challenge. Who did you help- a friend, family member, or someone else? Then, write about how you helped them, how it made you feel, and how it has impacted your life. 

Research one particular challenge your country is facing today, whether that be an economic, social, or political issue. Discuss how this challenge occurred and what began the difficulties. If applicable, include multiple viewpoints on the issue and include information from credible sources. You can also propose possible solutions to this issue. 

Humanity faces challenges on a massive scale, from a climate change crisis to possible third world war to a global pandemic. Choose one challenge the world faces today and write your essay about it. As with the previous prompt, write about the causes and responses to this challenge, and feel free to propose a solution. 

Check out our guide packed full of transition words for essays .

ProWritingAid is one of our top grammar checkers. Find out why in this ProWritingAid review .

Martin is an avid writer specializing in editing and proofreading. He also enjoys literary analysis and writing about food and travel.

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Life Experiences — Overcoming Challenges

Essays on Overcoming Challenges

Prompt examples for "overcoming challenges" essays, personal growth through adversity.

Share a personal experience in which you faced a significant challenge or adversity. Describe the impact it had on your personal growth, the lessons you learned, and how it changed your perspective on life.

The Role of Resilience

Discuss the concept of resilience in the face of challenges. How do individuals develop and demonstrate resilience, and what role does it play in overcoming difficult situations?

Overcoming Academic Obstacles

Explore the challenges students often encounter in their academic journeys. Describe a specific academic hurdle you faced, how you addressed it, and the strategies you used to succeed in your studies.

Challenges in the Workplace

Discuss challenges that individuals may encounter in their professional careers. Share a personal or professional experience in which you faced a workplace obstacle and describe how you navigated it to achieve success.

Health and Wellness Journey

Reflect on a health-related challenge, whether it's a physical ailment, mental health issue, or lifestyle change. Describe the steps you took to address this challenge, improve your well-being, and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Overcoming Adversity in Sports

Discuss how athletes often face physical and mental challenges in their sports careers. Share a personal or sports-related story in which you or someone you know overcame adversity in athletics, highlighting the determination and perseverance required.

Challenges in Relationships

Explore the challenges that can arise in personal relationships, such as friendships, family dynamics, or romantic partnerships. Share a personal experience or case study, detailing how communication and resilience played a role in overcoming relationship challenges.

Obstacles in Pursuit of Goals

Describe a specific goal or dream you have pursued and the obstacles you encountered along the way. Explain the strategies you employed to overcome these obstacles and achieve your objectives.

Contributions to Community

Discuss how individuals can overcome challenges to make positive contributions to their communities. Share a personal or community-based initiative you were involved in that addressed a significant challenge or issue.

Lessons from Adversity

Reflect on the life lessons you have learned from overcoming challenges. How have these experiences shaped your values, beliefs, and approach to future obstacles?

Practical Solutions for Financial, Health, and Social Issues

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Strategies for dealing with life’s difficulties.

Regardless of your fame, fortune, or abilities, life is filled with difficulties. You get to choose how you will react to those difficulties though. Learning to deal with them in healthy, productive ways results in personal growth and peace of mind. This fact sheet outlines four healthy, effective approaches to coping with the challenges of life: eliminating overthinking, working from your strengths, taking time for self-care, and finding meaning in your experiences

Eliminate Overthinking

When problems arise in our lives, it is natural to focus inward as a way to try to find solutions to relieve the discomfort and unhappiness the problems bring. However, the more you mull over a problem or situation, the unhappier and more stressed you will feel, and you likely will not have found a solution. In addition, overthinking has been found to interfere with your ability to solve problems, sap your motivation, and sustain or worsen feelings of sadness (Lyubomirsky, 2007).

Stopping overthinking is a lot easier said than done. Here are five strategies (Lyubomirsky, 2007) to try the next time you are stuck in an overthinking mode and want to free yourself from it:

Stop the overthinking

There are several ways to stop yourself from overthinking:

• Distract yourself – When you realize that you are overthinking, find something fun (and safe) to do to completely divert your attention away from overthinking. You could go for a run, clean the kitchen, watch a movie, or hang out with friends. Sometimes getting up and going into a different room is all that is needed.
• Switch your thinking – Think, say, or shout to yourself “STOP!” when you find yourself overthinking. Then find something else to think about that will not cause you stress.
• Schedule time – Set aside 15-30 minutes each day to do nothing but overthink. Knowing that there will be a specific time for overthinking will help you to stop doing so the rest of the day. Right before going to bed or when you are anxious or sad is probably not the best time to designate as overthinking time though.
• Talk to a friend – Find a sympathetic and trusted friend with whom you can share your thoughts and troubles. Sometimes simply voicing your thoughts is all it takes to clear your mind. Be willing to nonjudgmentally listen to your friend’s thoughts and troubles in return.
• Write it out – Write out your thoughts so you can organize and make sense of them. Overthinking complicates your thinking, but writing down your thoughts allows the dust to settle so you can see what the real concerns are.

Replace worrisome thoughts

True freedom comes in learning to replace obsessive, negative thoughts with either neutral or positive thoughts. Remember that hard things in your life do not determine your identity. Especially when you are in a negative mood, do not look for the cracks. Overthinking uses up your mental resources, making it difficult to concentrate on other things.

Solve what can be solved

Take a step—even if it is very small—toward solving the problems that were causing your overthinking. If you need to, you could write a list of every possible solution to the problem. Then think of someone that you highly respect and ask yourself which solution they would choose. Take action instead of waiting for something to happen. This will help you feel better.

Figure out your triggers

Figure out what situations or people trigger your overthinking, and avoid them or alter the circumstances so they no longer trigger overthinking.

Look at the wider perspective

Try to get a wider perspective of the situation by asking yourself if what you are ruminating about will matter in a year. If what you are overthinking about really is significant, think about what this experience can teach you.

Freeing yourself from the habit of overthinking will take some time and practice, so be patient with yourself. As you put forth consistent effort to overcome your overthinking, you will little by little start to see progress in your own well-being and also in your relationships with others.

Work from Your Strengths

With very little effort, you could probably list your weaknesses and shortcomings. However, focusing on these imperfections does not yield positive outcomes. Instead, you should focus on your unique, individual strengths. Being able to identify these strengths and use them in appropriate situations can help you to feel good about yourself and with life. In addition, research has found that acting on your strengths increases happiness and decreases depression (Greater Good, 2017b).

Consider the following steps (Greater Good, 2017b) for taking advantage of your strengths:

• Identify your strengths – Spend some time contemplating and making a list of your strengths. You could do so all by yourself, by asking a close friend or family member to help you identify them, or by taking the free VIA Signature Strengths test (www.authentichappiness.org). Regardless of which approach you take, create a list of your top strengths, as recognizing them is the first step in being able to take advantage of them.
• Reflect – Think about how you could use your strengths to overcome the challenges in your life. Also consider how you can use your strengths in new and different ways than you have in the past.
• Set goals – Pick one of your strengths and create a plan to use it as frequently as possible. You could focus on a different strength each day or spend the whole week focusing on one strength.
• Assess – After executing your plan, take some time to assess your experience focusing on your strengths. Write about your experience, including what you learned and how you felt. Set more goals to continue working from your strengths. If something did not work so well, figure out how to change it so that it is helpful.

While it is important to work on improving your weaknesses, focusing on using your strengths can increase your confidence. As you focus on using your strengths, you will become stronger and better equipped to face the challenges of life (Greater Good, 2017b).

Take Time for Self-Care

When challenges arise, especially when they involve other people, taking care of yourself can get pushed aside in favor of what seem to be more pressing and important demands on your time and energy. Especially when close friends and family members need help, it may seem selfish to take time for yourself. However, you will be better able to care for others and to face your own personal challenges when you have already taken time to care for your own needs (HRMET, 2013).

In order to best prepare yourself to take on the challenges of life and to help others face their challenges, make sure that you take care of your physical needs. Adequate sleep, good nutrition, and physical activity are all important elements. Caring for your emotional needs is also essential. Neglecting to care for your emotional needs can leave you feeling burned out. Regular self-care can prevent you from reaching this stage.

Try to incorporate the following two suggestions into your life in order to better care for yourself:

• Think of hobbies or activities that you enjoy doing, either by yourself or with others, that make you feel good and rejuvenated. Consider what it is about these activities that makes you feel so good (HRMET, 2013). Find ways to incorporate these types of activities into your daily life, especially when you start to feel emotionally tired.
• Mindfulness – Acknowledge what you are feeling, without judging it as good or bad.
• Common humanity – Recognize that everyone around you goes through rough times so suffering does not make you abnormal or not good enough in any way.
• Self-kindness – Put your hand over your heart and encourage yourself to be kind, strong, patient, etc.

Although it may seem selfish, taking the time to care for your physical and emotional needs is actually very selfless in that doing so puts you in a better position to care for others and enjoy life with them.

Find Meaning in Your Experiences

Stress and trauma are an inescapable part of life. Regardless of your efforts to effectively deal with the challenges you face, sometimes all that can be done is to seek to find meaning in the experiences as you patiently endure them, as well as come to terms with them after the fact. This process can lead to what Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky (2007) referred to as “a personal growth transformation” (p. 157). This can include a realization of one’s capabilities (especially the ability to endure), improved relationships as stress manifests which relationships can weather the storms of life, greater compassion for others who are suffering, and a greater sense of the meaning of life (Lyubomirsky, 2007).

The meaning of these personal experiences will be unique for each person. Finding meaning in these experiences allows for physical and emotional healing to take place (Lyubomirsky, 2007).

One approach to finding meaning in your experiences is to take some time to reflect on the following ideas (Lyubomirsky, 2007). It may be helpful to write down your thoughts and feelings or to discuss them with a trusted friend, family member, or professional.

• Acknowledge the pain, suffering, and discomfort that you have felt as a result of your stressful or traumatic experiences.
• Consider what you did during these challenging times that you are proud of.
• Ponder how much you have grown as a result of these experiences.
• Reflect on how you have changed and how your relationships with others have changed.
• Greater mental toughness
• Deeper relationships
• Increased awareness
• New perspectives
• A better appreciation for life
• A greater sense of meaning
• Strengthened priorities

Traumatic and stressful events can threaten your self-worth and your dreams. For this reason, coping may require being able to rethink your assumptions and beliefs about life. As you seek to find meaning in your experiences, intrusive thoughts about the experience will decrease and you will be able to accept what has happened or is currently happening in order to move forward (Lyubomirsky, 2007).

Challenges in life are inevitable. However, as you seek to understand and apply healthy ways of coping, such as eliminating overthinking, working from your strengths, taking time for self-care, and finding meaning in your experiences, you will be more prepared to face these challenges with peace and confidence.

• Greater Good in Action. (2017a). Self-compassion break. Retrieved from https://ggia.berkeley.edu/practice/self_compass ion_break
• Greater Good in Action. (2017b). Use your strengths. Retrieved from https://ggia.berkeley.edu/practice/use_your_str engths
• Healthy Relationship & Marriage Education Training [HRMET]. (2013). Take care of yourself. Retrieved from http://www.fcs.uga.edu/docs/01_CFS-T4.pdf
• Lyubomirsky, S. (2007). How of happiness. New York: The Penguin Press.

Jennifer Viveros ; Dr. David Schramm

David Schramm

Family Life Specialist

Human Development & Family Studies Dept

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7 Strategies to Face Life's Challenges

Wisdom from the couch..

Posted December 17, 2014 | Reviewed by Gary Drevitch

In our personal lives, and on a global scale, we face challenges that test our emotional mettle — injury, illness, unemployment, grief , divorce , death, or even a new venture with an unknown future. Here are seven strategies to help carry us through:

1. Turn Toward Reality

So often we turn away from life rather than toward it. We are masters of avoidance! But if we want to be present—to enjoy life and be more effective in it—we must orient ourselves toward facing reality. When we are guided by the reality principle, we develop a deeper capacity to deal with life more effectively. What once was difficult is now easier. What once frightened us now feels familiar. Life becomes more manageable. And there’s something even deeper that we gain: Because we can see that we have grown stronger, we have greater confidence that we can grow even stronger still. This is the basis of feeling capable, which is the wellspring of a satisfying life.

2. Embrace Your Life as It Is Rather Than as You Wish It to Be

The Buddha taught that the secret to life is to want what you have and to not want what you don’t have. Being present means being present to the life that you have right here, right now. There is freedom in taking life as it comes to us—the good with the bad, the wonderful with the tragic, the love with the loss, and the life with the death. When we embrace it all, then we have a real chance to enjoy life, to value our experiences, and to mine the treasures that are there for the taking. When we surrender to the reality of who we are, we give ourselves a chance to do what we can do.

3. Take Your Time

As the story of the tortoise and the hare tells us, slow and steady wins the race. By being in a hurry, we actually thwart our own success. We get ahead of ourselves. We make more mistakes. We cut corners and pay for them later. We may learn the easy way but not necessarily the best way. As an old adage puts it: The slower you go, the sooner you get there. Slow, disciplined, incremental growth is the kind of approach that leads to lasting change.

4. Practice Gratitude

It is easy to count our troubles rather than our blessings, but such an attitude undermines our ability to draw from the good that we have been given and to see our lives fundamentally as a gift. A change in perspective can make all the difference. Recognizing the good and receiving it with gratitude is a recipe for emotional health and well-being. This attitude enlarges the possibility that we can make use of the good we have been given and even use it to cope with the difficulties that we inevitably inherit.

5. Stay Close to Your Feelings, Even the Painful Ones

Often we find our feelings scary, heavy, and confusing, so we try to keep them at a distance. But we need our feelings in order to find satisfaction, meaning, and pleasure in life. Getting rid of feelings not only backfires but it also drains us of the psychological energy that makes life worth living. Feelings are the gas in the engine of our personalities. They are the source of motivation . They are the energy, the vitality, the juice of life. Without them, our lives wouldn’t have any personality , dimension, or color. There wouldn’t be any joy, creativity , or fun. There wouldn’t be you. There wouldn’t be me. Without our feelings, nothing would really matter.

6. Accept Success and Failure as Part of Life’s Journey

We are all learning: No one gets it right every time. A more compassionate attitude toward ourselves only helps us to stay in the game. The dynamic process of life—trying, succeeding, failing, and trying again—is the only way to develop lasting confidence in ourselves. We learn through experience that we can both succeed and recover from failure. We also learn to be humble and so to develop a view of ourselves as limited creatures that will always need the help and support of others. No matter how mature or successful we become, the child within always will need mentors and friends who’ll see us through.

7. Tend to Your Loving Relationships

It is easy to neglect what matters most: our relationships with those we love. These relationships don’t just happen magically; they grow and are sustained through attentive care and hard work. Mature love—in marriage , family, or friendships—is a dynamic, living experience. It is something you choose every day. It is something that is earned every day. It requires commitment to keep it working. It involves a daily process of overcoming the distance and honoring the separateness between us. It accepts the reality that we will hurt one another and be hurt by one another. It is the nature of being human. These pains cannot be avoided. We can only devote ourselves to do what we can do to weather them and to mend them. Love, then, is essentially repair work. We tend to the hurts. We try to heal them. We express our concern. We take responsibility for our mistakes; we learn to say we’re sorry. We try to make amends. We learn to forgive; we accept the forgiveness of another. As the monks do every day, we fall down and get up, fall down and get up again.

Copyright 2014 by Jennifer Kunst, Ph.D.

This post is drawn from an article featured in A Woman's Health .

Follow me on twitter @ CouchWisdom

Jennifer Kunst, Ph.D ., is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst, working with adults and couples in her private practice in Pasadena, CA.

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How to Write an Essay on a Challenge

What Should a Narrative Essay Format Look Like?

University and internship applications often require an essay, which reflects the challenges and obstacles you have overcome in life. An essay based around the challenges in your life can be a fantastic way to illustrate how you have continued to move forward in life despite of, or because of, the challenges which have come across your path. With some preparation and editing, an essay based on a challenge in your life can be a cathartic writing experience.

List challenges which have come into your life on a blank sheet of paper. For each challenge, also list out how that challenge has shaped or inspired you to move forward. Look for a challenge which will create a powerful narrative for your prospective audience. Make sure you choose a challenge that remains authentic to you.

Outline the essay. This step will help keep you focused and clear during the writing process. An outline should consist of headers, which will represent a paragraph or topic. Underneath this heading write out a topic sentence for each paragraph. Continue creating an outline which reflects the structure you would like the essay to take. This structure will often be chronological and will take you from the beginning of the challenge to the present time -- and to the goals you have for the future.

Pull the audience in quickly, with a compelling first sentence. For example, “The teacher stared at me, frustrated, and uncertain of her next move, I still could not read the sentence out loud to the class.” Readers will want to find out what happens next in the story.

Write the challenge essay following the outline you constructed in Step 2. Utilize the topic sentences from the outline as starting points for each new paragraph. Illustrate what the challenge is, how it has changed you throughout life and, most importantly, how you plan to continue striving for more in life.

Use concise sentences to keep the narrative flowing. Stay on topic in each paragraph. You will ideally address one topic in one paragraph. Avoid cliches in the narrative. For example rather than simply saying, “I want to help children,” discuss how you will accomplish this goal and use specifics.

Avoid using contractions. Edit the essay a few times to catch any typos or grammar mistakes. Have a friend or classmate read the essay and give you feedback.

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• Seton Hill University: Personal Essays
• Avoid using contractions.
• Edit the essay a few times to catch any typos or grammar mistakes.
• Have a friend or classmate read the essay and give you feedback.

Sarah Vrba has been a writer and editor since 2006. She has contributed to "Seed," "AND Magazine," Care2 Causes and "202 Magazine," among other outlets, focusing on fashion, pop culture, style and identity. Vrba holds an M.A. in history with an emphasis on gender and fashion in the 19th century.

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Experiencing hardship and adversity

The role of resilience in times of crisis, building resilience tip 1: practice acceptance, tip 2: reach out to others, tip 3: invest in self-care, tip 4: look for meaning and purpose, tip 5: stay motivated, surviving tough times by building resilience.

Whether you’re facing a global or personal crisis—or a mix of both—building resilience can help you cope with stress, overcome adversity, and enjoy the better days to come.

Lately, the world seems to be lurching from one crisis to another. We’ve experienced a global pandemic, dramatic changes to how we conduct our daily lives, economic uncertainty, and political and social turmoil, as well as an array of natural disasters. Then there are personal traumas that people are also dealing with, such as the loss of a loved one, declining health, unemployment, divorce, violent crime, or tragic accidents. For many us, this is a time of unprecedented struggle and upheaval.

Whether the source of disruption in your life is a global emergency or a personal tragedy—or both—living through difficult times can take a heavy toll on your mood, health, and outlook. It can leave you feeling helpless and overwhelmed by stress and anxiety. You may be painfully grieving all that you’ve lost, flooded by a slew of difficult, conflicting emotions, or uncertain about how to move on with your life. You may even feel that your life is totally out of control and you’re powerless to affect whatever may happen next.

While there’s no way to avoid sorrow, adversity, or distress in life, there are ways to help smooth the rough waters and regain a sense of control. Resilience is the ability to cope with the loss, change, and trauma that have been inevitable parts of life even before these extraordinary times. Building resilience can help you better adapt to life-changing events, cope with turbulent times, and bounce back from hardship and tragedy.

Why do some people seem to be better able to cope in these troubling times than others? While everyone’s situation is different, it is true that people with resilience tend to have a higher tolerance for the emotional distress generated by hard times. The more resilient you are, the better you’re able to tolerate the feelings of stress, anxiety, and sadness that accompany trauma and adversity—and find a way to rebound from setbacks.

[Read: How to Cope with Traumatic Events]

We all go through bad times, we all experience disappointment, loss, and change, and we all feel sad, anxious, and stressed at various times in our lives. But building resilience can help you to maintain a positive outlook, face an uncertain future with less fear, and get through even the darkest days.

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Building resilience

If you’re more sensitive to emotional distress and are finding it difficult to cope with hardship or adversity, it’s important not to think of it as some kind of character flaw. Resilience isn’t a macho quality and it isn’t fixed; it’s an ongoing process that requires effort to build and maintain over time.

Unless you’ve faced adversity in your life before, it’s unlikely you’ve had the need or opportunity to develop resilience. Drawing on past experiences can help you cope with the challenges you’re facing today. Even if you’ve struggled to cope with adversity in the past, you may at least be able to recognize some of the ways of coping that DON’T help, such as trying to numb your feelings with drugs or alcohol .

While it’s often difficult to imagine anything good coming out of traumatic experiences, building resilience can help you find any positives in the difficulties you’ve faced. Surviving hardships can teach you important things about yourself and the world around you, strengthen your resolve, deepen your empathy, and in time enable you to evolve and grow as a human being.

Building resilience can also help you to:

• Stay focused, flexible, and productive, in both good and bad times.
• Feel less afraid of new experiences or an uncertain future.
• Manage and tolerate strong emotions outside your comfort zone, even those you’d rather avoid like anger or despair.
• Strengthen your relationships and improve your communication skills, especially under pressure.
• Bolster your self-esteem.
• Be confident you’ll eventually find a solution to a problem, even when one isn’t immediately apparent.

You can develop and improve these qualities of resilience at any time, regardless of your age, background, or circumstances. The following tips can help you face hardships with more confidence, better cope with these tumultuous times, and make it through to the brighter, more hopeful days ahead.

While we all react to stressful events in different ways, many of us try to protect ourselves by refusing to accept the truth of what’s happening. After all, by denying that you’re even experiencing a crisis, you can kid yourself that you still have some sense of control over what are usually uncontrollable events.

While denial can have some positive functions—it can give you an opportunity to come to terms with the shock of a traumatic event, for example—over time, it will just prolong your pain. Staying in denial will prevent you from adapting to your new circumstances, stop you from seeking solutions or taking action, and stifle the healing process.

Accept the situation

Change is an inevitable part of life and many aspects of the changing world are outside your individual control. You can’t control the spread of a virus, for example, the pace of social change, or how the economy behaves. While it can be tough to acknowledge, railing against events or circumstances outside your control will only drain you of energy and leave you feeling anxious and hopeless. Accepting your situation, on the other hand, can free you up to devote your energy to the things that you do have control over.

Focus on things within your control. Make a list of all the things you can’t control and give yourself permission to stop worrying about them . Instead, focus on the action that you can take. If you’re unemployed, you can’t control whether the ideal job appears in the wants ads or whether an employer will grant you an interview. But you can control how much time and effort you put into searching for work or brushing up on your skills. Similarly, if a loved one is facing a life-threatening illness, you may have to relinquish control to the medical experts, but you can still focus on providing your loved one with as much emotional support as possible.

Accept change by looking to your past. Looking back at examples where you’ve coped with uncertainty and change before can help you accept your current situation. Perhaps you suffered a painful breakup in the past and were eventually able to move on with your life, or you lost a job and ended up finding a better one? Examining your past successes can also help you see past the current crisis and derive some confidence that you’ll be able to pull through again.

Accept your feelings

It’s tempting to believe that the best way to get through hard times is by ignoring painful emotions and “putting on a brave face”. But unpleasant emotions exist whether you choose to acknowledge them or not. Trying to prevent your emotions from surfacing will only fuel your stress, delay acceptance of your new situation, and prevent you from moving on.

By allowing yourself to feel your emotions, you’ll find that even the most intense, upsetting feelings will pass, the trauma of these tough times will start to fade, and you’ll be able to find a path forward. Talk to someone you trust about what you’re experiencing or use HelpGuide’s Emotional Intelligence Toolkit to reconnect with your emotions.

Grieve your losses

Undergoing tough times usually involves some kind of loss. Whether it’s the loss of a loved one, the loss of a job, or the loss of your old life, it’s important you allow yourself the opportunity to grieve. Only by facing your grief —acknowledging and mourning your losses—will you be able to heal and eventually move on with your life.

Connecting with friends and family when you’re going through tough times can help ease stress, boost your mood, and make sense of all the change and disruption . Instead of feeling like you’re facing your problems alone, you can draw strength and build resilience from having others to lean on.

The people you reach out to don’t need to have answers to the problems you’re facing; they just need to be willing to listen to you without judging. In fact, what you talk about or the words used are often unimportant. It’s the human connection—eye contact, a smile, or a hug—that can make all the difference to how you’re feeling.

Prioritize relationships . Nothing carries the same health benefits as connecting face-to-face with someone who is caring and empathetic. These days, however, it’s not always possible to see friends and loved ones in person. If you’re kept apart by geography, lockdown, or travel restrictions, for example, reach out to others via phone, video chat, or social media.

Don’t withdraw in tough times. You may be inclined to retreat into your shell when you’re facing challenges in your life. You may fear being a burden to friends and loved ones or feel too exhausted to reach out. But try to keep up with social activities even when you don’t feel like it. Good friends won’t consider you a burden—they’re more likely to feel flattered that you trust them enough to confide in them.

Try to avoid negative people. Some friends are good listeners, kind and empathetic. Others seem to only fuel negative emotions, leaving you feeling even more stressed, anxious, or panicky. Try to avoid anyone who magnifies your problems, criticizes, or makes you feel judged.

Expand your social network. Even though relationships are vital for good mental health , building resilience, and getting through tough times, many of us feel that we don’t have anyone to turn to in times of need. But there are plenty of ways to build new friendships and improve your support network. If you know others who are lonely or isolated, be the one to take the initiative and reach out.

Living through tough times can be both mentally and physically draining. Constantly being in a heightened state of stress can lead to serious health problems, impact your immune and digestive systems, increase your risk of heart attack and stroke, and lead to burnout , a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion.

Since the body and mind are so closely linked, investing in self-care is an important part of building resilience and getting through times of great stress. When your body feels strong and healthy so, too, will your mind.

Get enough exercise. When you’re dealing with chronic stress, you likely carry it somewhere in your body. Maybe your muscles are tense, you have back or neck pain, frequent headaches, insomnia, heartburn, or an upset stomach? Getting regular exercise not only releases powerful endorphins in the brain to improve your mood, but it can also help to ease tension in the body and counteract the physical symptoms of stress.

Practice a “mind and body” relaxation technique. Practices such as yoga, tai chi, and meditation blend deep breathing and body awareness to help you relieve stress and bring your nervous system back into balance. Try one of HelpGuide’s audio meditations to boost your physical and emotional well-being.

[Listen: Inner Strength Meditation]

Improve your sleep. When you’re facing adversity, nothing wears down your resilience like missing out on a good night’s sleep. Often, improving your daytime habits and taking the time to relax and unwind before bed can help you sleep better at night .

Eat well. There are no specific foods that can help build resilience and weather tough times. Rather, it’s your overall dietary pattern that’s important. Eating lots of processed and takeout food can take a toll on your brain and mood, sapping your energy, and weakening your immune system. A healthy diet , on the other hand—one that’s low in sugar and rich in healthy fats—can give you the energy and focus to tackle the challenges you’re facing.

Manage your overall stress levels . Taking steps to manage your overall stress can break the hold it has over your life, improve your mood, and help you build the resilience you need to hold up under pressure at this time.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by frightening headlines or consumed by the crisis you’re facing. But whatever your circumstances, it doesn’t have to define you as a person. You are not your crisis. By pursuing activities that bring purpose and meaning to your life, you can keep your problems in perspective, prevent them from overwhelming you, and maintain your identity.

Everyone is different so we all have different ways of experiencing purpose and meaning. Don’t limit yourself by others’ expectations; pursue activities that are important to you and add satisfaction to your life.

Give help to others. When you’re in the midst of a crisis, it’s common to feel powerless and helpless. By proactively helping others, you can regain a sense of control as well as find purpose in your life. In fact, giving support can be just as beneficial as receiving support. Try volunteering , helping others in your neighborhood, giving blood, donating to a charity, or marching for a cause that’s important to you.

Pursue your hobbies and interests. In turbulent times, it’s important not to cast aside interests that nourish your spirit. For many of us, it’s these things that define us as individuals and bring meaning to our lives. Whether it’s playing a sport, caring for a pet , an artistic or musical endeavor, home improvement projects, or spending time in nature, continuing to draw pleasure from your pastimes adds to your ability to cope with the stress of difficult times.

An important part of coping with adversity and making it through tough times is to foster qualities of persistence and endurance. Tough times don’t last forever, but by their very nature they’re rarely over quickly. As you plot a road through the darkness, you need to find ways to stay motivated and persevere.

Deal with your problems one step at a time. If a problem is too big to deal with all at once, try breaking it down into smaller, more manageable steps. If your problem seems to have no possible solution, you can still take action by drawing up a list, researching more about the subject, or seeking the advice of a trusted friend or loved one.

Celebrate small wins. To stay motivated and positive as you navigate stormy seas in life, take a moment to savor your small successes. If you’re looking for work, for example, getting an interview isn’t as meaningful as landing a job, but it’s a sign of progress, a step in the right direction. Noting these small wins can give you a welcome break from all the stress and negativity you’re facing and encourage you to keep going.

[Read: Finding Joy During Difficult Times]

Try to maintain a hopeful outlook. While it’s difficult to stay positive and hopeful in the midst of a crisis, many of us tend to blow our problems out of proportion and make them seem even more negative than they really are. Try taking a step back and examining your situation as an outsider. Are their rays of hope that you can focus on? Instead of worrying about what you fear may happen, try visualizing what you’d like to happen instead.

Express gratitude. It may sound trite, but even when you’re experience terrible times, it’s usually possible to find one thing you can be grateful about—the love of a pet, for example, a beautiful sunset, or a caring friend. Taking a moment to acknowledge your gratitude for such small things can provide respite from the stress and really boost your mood.

Be kind to yourself. Everyone adjusts to change and upheaval differently. Don’t criticize your coping skills or beat yourself up for every mistake you make. Self-compassion is an important part of building resilience, so go easy on yourself.

More Information

• Building your resilience - A roadmap for adapting to life-changing situations. (American Psychological Association)
• Tolerating Distress - Tools to help you face your feelings during difficult times. (Centre for Clinical Interventions)
• Five Science-Backed Strategies to Build Resilience - Ways to build resilience and confront emotional pain. (Greater Good Magazine, UC Berkeley)
• Trauma- and Stressor-Related Disorders. (2013). In Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders . American Psychiatric Association. Link
• Norris, F. H. “Epidemiology of Trauma: Frequency and Impact of Different Potentially Traumatic Events on Different Demographic Groups.” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 60, no. 3 (June 1992): 409–18. Link
• Macedo, Tania, Livia Wilheim, Raquel Gonçalves, Evandro Silva Freire Coutinho, Liliane Vilete, Ivan Figueira, and Paula Ventura. “Building Resilience for Future Adversity: A Systematic Review of Interventions in Non-Clinical Samples of Adults.” BMC Psychiatry 14, no. 1 (August 14, 2014): 227. Link
• Joyce, Sadhbh, Fiona Shand, Joseph Tighe, Steven J Laurent, Richard A Bryant, and Samuel B Harvey. “Road to Resilience: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Resilience Training Programmes and Interventions.” BMJ Open 8, no. 6 (June 14, 2018): e017858. Link
• Lee, Tak Yan, Chau Kiu Cheung, and Wai Man Kwong. “Resilience as a Positive Youth Development Construct: A Conceptual Review.” The Scientific World Journal 2012 (May 2, 2012): 390450. Link
• Forbes, Sarah, and Deniz Fikretoglu. “Building Resilience: The Conceptual Basis and Research Evidence for Resilience Training Programs.” Review of General Psychology 22, no. 4 (December 1, 2018): 452–68. Link
• Shatté, Andrew, Adam Perlman, Brad Smith, and Wendy D. Lynch. “The Positive Effect of Resilience on Stress and Business Outcomes in Difficult Work Environments.” Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 59, no. 2 (February 2017): 135–40. Link
• Hoegl, Martin, and Silja Hartmann. “Bouncing Back, If Not beyond: Challenges for Research on Resilience.” Asian Business & Management 20, no. 4 (September 1, 2021): 456–64. Link
• Silver, Kristin E., Meera Kumari, Danette Conklin, and Gunnur Karakurt. “Trauma and Health Symptoms in a Community Sample: Examining the Influences of Gender and Daily Stress.” The American Journal of Family Therapy 46, no. 2 (2018): 153–67. Link
• Sansbury, Brittany S, Kelly Graves, and Wendy Scott. “Managing Traumatic Stress Responses among Clinicians: Individual and Organizational Tools for Self-Care.” Trauma 17, no. 2 (April 1, 2015): 114–22. Link
• Bower, Gordon H., and Heidi Sivers. “Cognitive Impact of Traumatic Events.” Development and Psychopathology 10, no. 4 (December 1998): 625–53. Link
• Ley, Clemens, María Rato Barrio, and Andreas Koch. “‘In the Sport I Am Here’: Therapeutic Processes and Health Effects of Sport and Exercise on PTSD.” Qualitative Health Research 28, no. 3 (February 1, 2018): 491–507. Link
• Hegberg, Nicole J., Jasmeet P. Hayes, and Scott M. Hayes. “Exercise Intervention in PTSD: A Narrative Review and Rationale for Implementation.” Frontiers in Psychiatry 10 (2019): 133. Link

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Essay about Life Challenges (1000 Words)

Life’s challenges are unavoidable. They are diverse and everywhere, each demanding a different approach. But how can we deal with these difficult situations? It is your reaction to life challenges that can make a difference. In this essay, you will learn about life challenges and how to deal with them.

Essay about Life Challenges

I believe that everyone has problems or challenges to overcome everyday. Even people who think that they are perfect have problems or challenges to overcome in their life. However, there are always solutions to those problems.

My life challenge is not staying focus and then at the end of the day I did the wrong things that I should have done. Because I wasn’t paying attention, and then got distracted by other things going on around me, it caused me to not stay focus on what I was going to do in the first place.

My solution for this challenge is just be more focused on what I am doing. When I’m listening, pay attention and stay focus on what is being said and what I should do in order to get my work done on time and then move on from there. Also stopping procrastinating because putting things off until last minute just cause more stress for me which is not good for me at all.

What are the challenges of life?

The challenges of life are different for everyone.

Some people have a physical challenge, like a disability or illness that prevents them from performing certain tasks. Others have emotional challenges, like depression or anxiety. Some struggle with mental health issues. And then there are those who face spiritual difficulties, such as feeling lost in a world that seems to move too quickly around them to keep up with their pace of life.

The important thing is not just that you know what type of challenge you’re facing in your own life right now—it’s also important to understand what kind of help is available to you if you need it!

There are so many life challenges

Life challenges are everywhere. They come in many different forms and can be physical, mental or emotional. Some life challenges are short term while others are long term.

Some life challenges can be overcome while others cannot. One of the most common types of life challenges is having a difficult relationship with someone else where you feel like your needs aren’t being met or that there is no way to communicate with them because they don’t listen to what you have to say and this makes it difficult for you to trust yourself or anyone else because you think they will hurt you just like the other person did before.

All relationships seem difficult which makes it hard for me at times but I’m learning how not let this happen anymore because once my mind starts doing this then I start feeling depressed which means I’m alone again.

The biggest challenge in life

The biggest challenge in life is not the problem itself, but how you react to it. The way you react to a challenge can make you stronger or weaker, more or less successful.

How do you overcome challenges in life

When facing a life challenge, it is important to ask for help. It is also very important to talk with someone you trust. If you have been struggling with something for a long time and are having a hard time getting through it alone, then talking about it with someone else can be helpful. Talking about your problems helps you realize that other people face similar issues in their lives and helps you feel less alone in dealing with these issues.

If you are having trouble dealing with a problem or issue in your life and do not know what to do at that moment, being positive will also help! When we are happy, this usually makes other people around us feel good too; therefore, being positive can make everyone around us feel better as well!

It’s always nice when there’s an uplifting atmosphere surrounding us instead of one full of negativity because those feelings affect each person differently depending on how they’ve been raised throughout childhood or even adulthood!

You should never give up when things get tough because sometimes things won’t seem like they’re going anywhere but always remember: patience wins out over anything else – especially if someone else isn’t willing enough to wait until later on down the road before coming back again another day.

Nobody else can help you deal with your challenges

There are many benefits to seeking help in your life challenges. However, there is a major drawback: you have to be open and honest about what you’re going through. You cannot expect other people to read your mind and know what’s going on with you. If you want others to help you, they will need as much information as possible so they can offer the best advice and support that they can.

So when it comes time for me or any other person who wants my opinion on a certain life challenge I’m dealing with, I like when people ask me questions like: “How do I deal with this?” or “What would be an effective way of tackling this problem?” These are great questions because they allow me (or anyone else) an opportunity to give thoughtful answers based on experience instead of guessing at what might work for them without knowing all the details.

Life challenges can be hard but you can get through them

• Life challenges are part of life.
• You can’t get through life without challenges.
• You can’t get through life without making mistakes.
• You can’t get through life without failing.
• And you can’t get through life without learning!

No one said life was easy for anyone. The person that you are today is a result of the difficulties, problems and challenges you have faced in your life. Those who face life head-on and overcome problems with courage and challenge know the true value of life. When we face a challenge or a problem, it helps us to grow. It gives us strength and a deeper insight into our own character. And it can also be an adventure! So don’t look at challenges as something to avoid, but as something to be sought after and cherished. There would be no progress if there were no challenges or struggles in our lives.

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Tips for Writing an Effective Application Essay

How to Write an Effective Essay

Writing an essay for college admission gives you a chance to use your authentic voice and show your personality. It's an excellent opportunity to personalize your application beyond your academic credentials, and a well-written essay can have a positive influence come decision time.

Want to know how to draft an essay for your college application ? Here are some tips to keep in mind when writing.

Tips for Essay Writing

A typical college application essay, also known as a personal statement, is 400-600 words. Although that may seem short, writing about yourself can be challenging. It's not something you want to rush or put off at the last moment. Think of it as a critical piece of the application process. Follow these tips to write an impactful essay that can work in your favor.

1. Start Early.

Few people write well under pressure. Try to complete your first draft a few weeks before you have to turn it in. Many advisers recommend starting as early as the summer before your senior year in high school. That way, you have ample time to think about the prompt and craft the best personal statement possible.

You don't have to work on your essay every day, but you'll want to give yourself time to revise and edit. You may discover that you want to change your topic or think of a better way to frame it. Either way, the sooner you start, the better.

2. Understand the Prompt and Instructions.

Before you begin the writing process, take time to understand what the college wants from you. The worst thing you can do is skim through the instructions and submit a piece that doesn't even fit the bare minimum requirements or address the essay topic. Look at the prompt, consider the required word count, and note any unique details each school wants.

3. Create a Strong Opener.

Students seeking help for their application essays often have trouble getting things started. It's a challenging writing process. Finding the right words to start can be the hardest part.

Spending more time working on your opener is always a good idea. The opening sentence sets the stage for the rest of your piece. The introductory paragraph is what piques the interest of the reader, and it can immediately set your essay apart from the others.

4. Stay on Topic.

One of the most important things to remember is to keep to the essay topic. If you're applying to 10 or more colleges, it's easy to veer off course with so many application essays.

A common mistake many students make is trying to fit previously written essays into the mold of another college's requirements. This seems like a time-saving way to avoid writing new pieces entirely, but it often backfires. The result is usually a final piece that's generic, unfocused, or confusing. Always write a new essay for every application, no matter how long it takes.

5. Think About Your Response.

Don't try to guess what the admissions officials want to read. Your essay will be easier to write─and more exciting to read─if you’re genuinely enthusiastic about your subject. Here’s an example: If all your friends are writing application essays about covid-19, it may be a good idea to avoid that topic, unless during the pandemic you had a vivid, life-changing experience you're burning to share. Whatever topic you choose, avoid canned responses. Be creative.

6. Focus on You.

Essay prompts typically give you plenty of latitude, but panel members expect you to focus on a subject that is personal (although not overly intimate) and particular to you. Admissions counselors say the best essays help them learn something about the candidate that they would never know from reading the rest of the application.

7. Stay True to Your Voice.

Use your usual vocabulary. Avoid fancy language you wouldn't use in real life. Imagine yourself reading this essay aloud to a classroom full of people who have never met you. Keep a confident tone. Be wary of words and phrases that undercut that tone.

8. Be Specific and Factual.

Capitalize on real-life experiences. Your essay may give you the time and space to explain why a particular achievement meant so much to you. But resist the urge to exaggerate and embellish. Admissions counselors read thousands of essays each year. They can easily spot a fake.

9. Edit and Proofread.

When you finish the final draft, run it through the spell checker on your computer. Then don’t read your essay for a few days. You'll be more apt to spot typos and awkward grammar when you reread it. After that, ask a teacher, parent, or college student (preferably an English or communications major) to give it a quick read. While you're at it, double-check your word count.

Writing essays for college admission can be daunting, but it doesn't have to be. A well-crafted essay could be the deciding factor─in your favor. Keep these tips in mind, and you'll have no problem creating memorable pieces for every application.

What is the format of a college application essay?

Generally, essays for college admission follow a simple format that includes an opening paragraph, a lengthier body section, and a closing paragraph. You don't need to include a title, which will only take up extra space. Keep in mind that the exact format can vary from one college application to the next. Read the instructions and prompt for more guidance.

Most online applications will include a text box for your essay. If you're attaching it as a document, however, be sure to use a standard, 12-point font and use 1.5-spaced or double-spaced lines, unless the application specifies different font and spacing.

How do you start an essay?

The goal here is to use an attention grabber. Think of it as a way to reel the reader in and interest an admissions officer in what you have to say. There's no trick on how to start a college application essay. The best way you can approach this task is to flex your creative muscles and think outside the box.

You can start with openers such as relevant quotes, exciting anecdotes, or questions. Either way, the first sentence should be unique and intrigue the reader.

What should an essay include?

Every application essay you write should include details about yourself and past experiences. It's another opportunity to make yourself look like a fantastic applicant. Leverage your experiences. Tell a riveting story that fulfills the prompt.

What shouldn’t be included in an essay?

When writing a college application essay, it's usually best to avoid overly personal details and controversial topics. Although these topics might make for an intriguing essay, they can be tricky to express well. If you’re unsure if a topic is appropriate for your essay, check with your school counselor. An essay for college admission shouldn't include a list of achievements or academic accolades either. Your essay isn’t meant to be a rehashing of information the admissions panel can find elsewhere in your application.

How can you make your essay personal and interesting?

The best way to make your essay interesting is to write about something genuinely important to you. That could be an experience that changed your life or a valuable lesson that had an enormous impact on you. Whatever the case, speak from the heart, and be honest.

Is it OK to discuss mental health in an essay?

Mental health struggles can create challenges you must overcome during your education and could be an opportunity for you to show how you’ve handled challenges and overcome obstacles. If you’re considering writing your essay for college admission on this topic, consider talking to your school counselor or with an English teacher on how to frame the essay.

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What to know about the crisis of violence, politics and hunger engulfing Haiti

A long-simmering crisis over Haiti’s ability to govern itself, particularly after a series of natural disasters and an increasingly dire humanitarian emergency, has come to a head in the Caribbean nation, as its de facto president remains stranded in Puerto Rico and its people starve and live in fear of rampant violence. 

The chaos engulfing the country has been bubbling for more than a year, only for it to spill over on the global stage on Monday night, as Haiti’s unpopular prime minister, Ariel Henry, agreed to resign once a transitional government is brokered by other Caribbean nations and parties, including the U.S.

But the very idea of a transitional government brokered not by Haitians but by outsiders is one of the main reasons Haiti, a nation of 11 million, is on the brink, according to humanitarian workers and residents who have called for Haitian-led solutions. 

“What we’re seeing in Haiti has been building since the 2010 earthquake,” said Greg Beckett, an associate professor of anthropology at Western University in Canada. 

What is happening in Haiti and why?

In the power vacuum that followed the assassination of democratically elected President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, Henry, who was prime minister under Moïse, assumed power, with the support of several nations, including the U.S. 

When Haiti failed to hold elections multiple times — Henry said it was due to logistical problems or violence — protests rang out against him. By the time Henry announced last year that elections would be postponed again, to 2025, armed groups that were already active in Port-au-Prince, the capital, dialed up the violence.

Even before Moïse’s assassination, these militias and armed groups existed alongside politicians who used them to do their bidding, including everything from intimidating the opposition to collecting votes . With the dwindling of the country’s elected officials, though, many of these rebel forces have engaged in excessively violent acts, and have taken control of at least 80% of the capital, according to a United Nations estimate. 

Those groups, which include paramilitary and former police officers who pose as community leaders, have been responsible for the increase in killings, kidnappings and rapes since Moïse’s death, according to the Uppsala Conflict Data Program at Uppsala University in Sweden. According to a report from the U.N . released in January, more than 8,400 people were killed, injured or kidnapped in 2023, an increase of 122% increase from 2022.

“January and February have been the most violent months in the recent crisis, with thousands of people killed, or injured, or raped,” Beckett said.

Armed groups who had been calling for Henry’s resignation have already attacked airports, police stations, sea ports, the Central Bank and the country’s national soccer stadium. The situation reached critical mass earlier this month when the country’s two main prisons were raided , leading to the escape of about 4,000 prisoners. The beleaguered government called a 72-hour state of emergency, including a night-time curfew — but its authority had evaporated by then.

Aside from human-made catastrophes, Haiti still has not fully recovered from the devastating earthquake in 2010 that killed about 220,000 people and left 1.5 million homeless, many of them living in poorly built and exposed housing. More earthquakes, hurricanes and floods have followed, exacerbating efforts to rebuild infrastructure and a sense of national unity.

Since the earthquake, “there have been groups in Haiti trying to control that reconstruction process and the funding, the billions of dollars coming into the country to rebuild it,” said Beckett, who specializes in the Caribbean, particularly Haiti. 

Beckett said that control initially came from politicians and subsequently from armed groups supported by those politicians. Political “parties that controlled the government used the government for corruption to steal that money. We’re seeing the fallout from that.”

Many armed groups have formed in recent years claiming to be community groups carrying out essential work in underprivileged neighborhoods, but they have instead been accused of violence, even murder . One of the two main groups, G-9, is led by a former elite police officer, Jimmy Chérizier — also known as “Barbecue” — who has become the public face of the unrest and claimed credit for various attacks on public institutions. He has openly called for Henry to step down and called his campaign an “armed revolution.”

But caught in the crossfire are the residents of Haiti. In just one week, 15,000 people have been displaced from Port-au-Prince, according to a U.N. estimate. But people have been trying to flee the capital for well over a year, with one woman telling NBC News that she is currently hiding in a church with her three children and another family with eight children. The U.N. said about 160,000 people have left Port-au-Prince because of the swell of violence in the last several months. 

Deep poverty and famine are also a serious danger. Gangs have cut off access to the country’s largest port, Autorité Portuaire Nationale, and food could soon become scarce.

Haiti's uncertain future

A new transitional government may dismay the Haitians and their supporters who call for Haitian-led solutions to the crisis. 

But the creation of such a government would come after years of democratic disruption and the crumbling of Haiti’s political leadership. The country hasn’t held an election in eight years. 

Haitian advocates and scholars like Jemima Pierre, a professor at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, say foreign intervention, including from the U.S., is partially to blame for Haiti’s turmoil. The U.S. has routinely sent thousands of troops to Haiti , intervened in its government and supported unpopular leaders like Henry.

“What you have over the last 20 years is the consistent dismantling of the Haitian state,” Pierre said. “What intervention means for Haiti, what it has always meant, is death and destruction.”

In fact, the country’s situation was so dire that Henry was forced to travel abroad in the hope of securing a U.N. peacekeeping deal. He went to Kenya, which agreed to send 1,000 troops to coordinate an East African and U.N.-backed alliance to help restore order in Haiti, but the plan is now on hold . Kenya agreed last October to send a U.N.-sanctioned security force to Haiti, but Kenya’s courts decided it was unconstitutional. The result has been Haiti fending for itself. 

“A force like Kenya, they don’t speak Kreyòl, they don’t speak French,” Pierre said. “The Kenyan police are known for human rights abuses . So what does it tell us as Haitians that the only thing that you see that we deserve are not schools, not reparations for the cholera the U.N. brought , but more military with the mandate to use all kinds of force on our population? That is unacceptable.”  

Henry was forced to announce his planned resignation from Puerto Rico, as threats of violence — and armed groups taking over the airports — have prevented him from returning to his country.  

Now that Henry is to stand down, it is far from clear what the armed groups will do or demand next, aside from the right to govern. 

“It’s the Haitian people who know what they’re going through. It’s the Haitian people who are going to take destiny into their own hands. Haitian people will choose who will govern them,” Chérizier said recently, according to The Associated Press .

Haitians and their supporters have put forth their own solutions over the years, holding that foreign intervention routinely ignores the voices and desires of Haitians. 

In 2021, both Haitian and non-Haitian church leaders, women’s rights groups, lawyers, humanitarian workers, the Voodoo Sector and more created the Commission to Search for a Haitian Solution to the Crisis . The commission has proposed the “ Montana Accord ,” outlining a two-year interim government with oversight committees tasked with restoring order, eradicating corruption and establishing fair elections. 

For more from NBC BLK, sign up for our weekly newsletter .

CORRECTION (March 15, 2024, 9:58 a.m. ET): An earlier version of this article misstated which university Jemima Pierre is affiliated with. She is a professor at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, not the University of California, Los Angeles, (or Columbia University, as an earlier correction misstated).

Patrick Smith is a London-based editor and reporter for NBC News Digital.

Char Adams is a reporter for NBC BLK who writes about race.

Chicago Cubs | As Chicago Cubs determine how long ace Justin…

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Chicago Cubs

Chicago cubs | as chicago cubs determine how long ace justin steele will be sidelined, replacing his production will serve as a challenge.

ARLINGTON, Texas — Less than three hours before Chicago Cubs left-hander Justin Steele fell to the grass clutching his left hamstring on opening day at Globe Life Field, president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer was asked about the organization’s pitching depth.

After all, the depth, particularly among starting pitchers, appeared to be a team strength after getting through spring largely healthy.

“I think we have really good starters and good bullpen guys, but I thought some of the young guys took steps forward in the offseason, they looked good in spring training, so there’s no question we’ll need a lot of pitching,” Hoyer said. “And I think we’re in good shape that way organizationally, but one of the daunting aspects of starting this marathon is knowing this isn’t 20 years ago anymore, we’re not going to rely on five starters and a couple bullpen guys. It’s going to take everyone.”

Steele’s injury, however, is a big blow. Steele suffered a left hamstring strain as he fielded a bunt with two outs in the fifth inning of Thursday’s 4-3, 10-inning loss to the Texas Rangers. The Cubs won’t know the severity of the tear and how long he could be sidelined until they receive the results of Friday’s MRI. Steele is one of the most unreplaceable players on the roster. Coming off an All-Star season in which he was in contention for the National League Cy Young Award most the year, Steele was expected to build off that performance as the workhorse at the top of the rotation.

As much as injuries are part of the game, losing a pitcher of Steele’s caliber is a challenge to replace regardless of the organization’s depth. They survived a scare during his final spring start March 22 when Steele took a comebacker on the outside of his left knee against the first batter of the second inning.

Losing him on the first day of the season is its own brand of painful for the Cubs. Steele was rolling, too, before he felt his hamstring grab. He held the defending World Series champions to three hits and one run on a sacrifice fly with six strikeouts and one walk in 4 2/3 innings.

“It was typical Justin Steele,” manager Craig Counsell said. “They were super aggressive swinging, but he was still getting a ton of swing and miss, which is really impressive against that very good offensive team. That’s what you expect him to do, and he was delivering.”

For as well as Steele was pitching before the injury, his night likely would not have lasted much longer anyway. With the top of the Rangers order coming up and Steele at 67 pitches with two outs in the fifth, Counsell had Yency Almonte and Julian Merryweather up in the bullpen. Counsell said if the Rangers had gotten a hit to take the lead, “maybe we went to something different there.” Josh Jung, No. 3 in the order, had given Steele two tough at-bats, forcing him to throw a combined 16 pitches and leading Counsell to also consider going to the bullpen when his spot came up next.

Counsell had liked how the bullpen was lining up before Steele’s premature departure quickly forced an adjustment. He commended Mark Leiter Jr. for getting them five outs to get the back of the pen realigned for the late innings and liked the soft contact he saw from Hèctor Neris in the eighth. Unfortunately for the Cubs, Adbert Alzolay’s 2-2 slider caught enough of the inside of the plate for lefty pinch hitter Travis Jankowski to slug it for a tying home run in the ninth.

Photos: Opening day for Chicago Cubs at Globe Life Field

“I thought the bullpen did a really nice job, a bunch of guys filled the roles,” Counsell said.

The Cubs spent the Friday off day regrouping and laying out a plan on how to cover Steele’s spot in the rotation for however long he is out. With days off Thursday and April 11, they could get creative in calling up a reliever for short-term support before bringing up a starter from Triple-A Iowa — right-handers Hayden Wesneski and Ben Brown are on the 40-man roster.

Every season endures challenges. The Cubs are taking on a potentially big one after Day 1.

“The guys that do this for a long time and are considered the top rotation starters, it’s not a one-time thing,” Hoyer said. “I thought he looked really good this spring minus the fielding and I think he’s ready to go and have a good year.”

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