I know everyday even after reading all those wisdom-filled books, listening to the good stuff, and having those rare moments of euphoria when you are saying to yourself ‘I can be and do anything,’ people, situations, conversations, and unseen events somehow steal away the shine, and get you to feel low on energy, de-motivated, and sometimes ‘done’ with life. The question, then, is what can you possibly, still, do to take control of your life and have a great day every day? Or is it that a great day everyday and a great life are just myths? The answer is pretty straight forward.

No, they absolutely and definitely are NOT myths. Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Ronaldo, Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and James Cameroon are some of the living examples of this proven fact. Nobody is saying you are not going to encounter pain. In fact, I will be the first one to say that you will face a serious pain on the way. Let me reemphasize: A lot of pain. But it’s not where you start that really counts; given that you do start. But, it is where you end up which matters.

This article is focused on what to where even after starting your day right, daily challenges drain you out. What can you possibly still do? I have come up with five practical techniques that you can use in your daily life to overcome adversity. While write them, I realized two important things. a) They act as strong immune for overcoming daily challenges, if practiced regularly; and b) They have the power to bring about a permanent positive shift in your being.

1. Watch Your Thoughts

   When having a bad day, pause for a moment, and catch your thoughts. What are you thinking? What is bothering you or causing you so much pain, anger, envy, and/or irritation? Remind yourself there are 7.4 billion people out there, and you seem to be taking pressure from a few hundreds. Usually it is not even that much. Often, there are only one or two people that stress you out. Question yourself, ‘What is the big deal?’ Somebody somewhere else with a different set of problems is thinking theirs are the biggest. The truth is your problems are relative, and in the scheme of so much that goes on in the World, do you think it really matters? So calm down, and realize it’s not as severe as you think it to be. Also, what I can promise you is that someone somewhere has way more obstacles than what you are facing right now, so if he/she can survive, to say the least, you can definitely begin to work on moving forward.

2. Have a few words or lines that you affirm to yourself every day.

   I call it your cheat sheet.  If you have been spending time reading or listening to good recordings, you then understand how valuable good words are as they have the power to positively alter your thought process. If you aren’t in the habit of reading or listening to the good stuff, well it’s a great idea to start. (You can view my video on forming effective daily habits right here.) Coming back to the point, it is a great habit to have an affirmation page stored on your phone/computer, or written in your notebook which you (can) carry with you at all times. Repeat your written thoughts as many times as you feel like (for some ten is a good number; for others thousand works.) For instance, you may want to say to yourself ”I am fearless and confident.” May be, you want to affirm “Life is fun, no matter what. I like this adventure of not knowing exactly of what is going to happen next.” What you say to yourself definitely has an impact, so use it to your advantage.

3. What if Today Was Your Last Day?

   In all honestly and sincerity, today is the only day we got. So, ask yourself “What if today was my last day on Planet Earth?” What if it was the last time you woke up? or saw your family? What if it was the last time you ate? or got an opportunity to work? What works for me is, giving it a timeline. I always set midnight as the time when the day ends. If it is six in the morning, I ask myself, what if these are the last 18 hours of my life? The feeling I get is beyond words. It positively impacts me to say the least. Ask yourself the same, and the realization that your time is limited will make you value everything a lot more.

4. Speak well, and express selfless love to all those you come across.

   This is the biggest challenge for most of us in our lives. I am no different from you. Somebody comes and says something, or disturbs your flow of things, it is bound to irritate you; it is only human. Things don’t go as planned, and it all just becomes a big challenge. Time which seemed to have been flying is now crawling. In those moments, the real strength lies in showing control over the only person that you really can control-Yourself. You can’t control if others like you or no, if they are pleased with you, or what they think or say about you. But you can definitely look within and work on improving your own reactions towards such people and scenarios. What this realization will also do is put your enlightened self in a place where you can see that most people are stuck in the same rut. They need someone to rescue them, and it might just be you who can help them. When you apply this attitude, and begin to love others unconditionally, as you will witness, more of the good things begin to happen to you.

5. Sing a song 🙂

   The last one is my favorite: I mean it: Pick up your favorite song. If you are shy, don’t worry: Nobody has to hear you sing. I, with a quantum of feedback from my friends and family, can promise you that I am miserable at singing, but because I love to, and because it releases all the stress from my body, I continue to do so, and enjoy it tremendously (and I honestly believe I am getting better at it!) Singing Works: It will relax your stress muscles, and will make you think better.

Remember at the end of it, this day, just like every other day, is going to end, and you genuinely don’t know (which is also the beauty of life) if you will have another one quite like it. Today is special. Its occurrence in our calendar is only once. Tomorrow you are going to have different set of problems which is why you need to have your personal space to go back to, and think. There is a John Lennon saying which I often remind myself about to lighten things up. It says “Life is what happens to us when we are making plans.” More often than not, I find it to be true. Plan, but make sure you keep room for surprises too.

Promise yourself, it’s absolutely OK to have life throw its challenges at you because you now know how to tackle them, and still continue to win.