Whenever you face a challenge, the important thing is how you perceive it. What lesson can be learnt? All adversities will test your tolerance and patience. Try to always see the positives you can take from a situation, the life lessons, because whenever you feel powerless — like something is happening to you —you can forget your true inner strength.

Challenges can help you put things in perspective. When you focus on problems, you have more problems; when you focus on possibilities, you have more opportunities.

When you experience an adversity, it frustrates you because you realise that control is an illusion. Even though it sometimes feels like you have full control of your life, you don’t have any ability to control external events. The only thing you can control is your internal condition. Once you understand this, you can start to ask: is this adversity really such a roadblock, or is it something you can move past?

When you face a setback, you have to step forward, because that is the only way to arrive at where you were before. If you keep procrastinating and ruminating on what’s happened, you’ll stay stuck in the past. When you step forward, you align yourself in the present moment and the power that is in the now. Don’t let setbacks push you back or keep you standing in the same spot.

During tough times, your health can sometimes take a back seat. But this is the point when you need the support of good health more than any other. It is the time you need nourishing food to provide energy, exercise to clear your thoughts, and good-quality sleep to ensure you have greater perspective. When you experience stress, your health is your most reliable tool to keep you balanced and emotionally present.

Practise taking calculated risks. Risks are everywhere and anything you do might result in failure. Decide how important the risk is versus the risk of not being successful. You will never succeed unless you try.

Make a list of people you know who have overcome adversity and setbacks to achieve success in their lives (Hi Richard Branson). These are the people to seek out to explore the pros and cons of an opportunity with you. You can learn a lot from other people’s mistakes.