3 Ways to Reframe Challenges as Growth Opportunities

Confusion comes from situations that we don’t quite understand in the moment because the obstacles overwhelm us at first. Students, most of you have attended virtual classes for the first time. Teachers, you’ve had to adapt your lesson plans at a moment’s notice. Parents, you’ve had to support your children while maintaining your workload.

Businesses and offices have gone remote. The classrooms, and generally the world around us, has gone digital. With that said, all of us have experienced our respective challenges along the way. With little planning and preparation, all of us have resulted in a lot of unexpected changes and growing pains. 

Weeks and months later, we realize that these challenges were meant to teach us a lesson. At the moment, we might be in that moment of truth now. 

How have we overcome the initial obstacles? How have we grown in the midst of rapid changes? 

Today we focus on three ways to best work toward resolving frustrations that come from challenges and to move them toward solutions! 

1. Looking Beyond Immediate Challenges

What is this obstacle trying to teach me? 

The moment that we feel that we’re face a seemingly insurmountable challenge, we can automatically feel overwhelmed. The weight of a decision, or project, can feel like a huge weight if we don’t seek to understand our emotions first. 

We need to find a way to understand our emotions and channel it into a solution. 

With all the outside influences that affect our lives (the media, news, etc), and our responsibilities, we have to try our best to learn in the moment. We will have to make uncomfortable changes or adjustments, and we have to look at these decisions with a long-term view.

Will you remember this issue in years from now? 

Ask yourself what bothered you if it’s still bothering you or if you found a solution. 

We have to try our best to understand what our emotions are trying to tell us and focus on the bigger picture. All of us are learning and embracing the process, and the lessons learned from the challenge can create bigger impact if we focus on the desired outcome. 

If you’ve had a problem asking for help, you might have learned to confidently communicate that question. If you’re still struggling with your obstacles, and/or how to communicate, you’re still learning and that’s okay! Some challenges stem from widespread issues within society and culture, and they can’t be changed overnight, but on an individual level we can do our best change our relationship with them with the support of others.

One of the reasons why our team loves supporting teachers and students is because we see students overcome their culture shock, their fears, their biases, and whatever might be holding them back in the moment while abroad. At the end of each day, and throughout the day, our team leads reflections with the students to assess how students are overcoming challenges.

All of us are trying our best to understand our emotions, and we can’t judge ourselves while we’re in the process. 

2. Focusing on Lessons Learned

What have I learned about myself from this challenge? 

Sometimes we try to move so quickly past our challenges that we don’t appreciate what we learned from it. The valuable information and perspective that we gained from it. 

In many instances, the global pandemic has forced us to communicate in different ways. We can’t go over to our colleague, teacher or student in person and so we had to find another way to find closure or a solution. 

We focused on the issue, what we needed and how to articulate it in a new way. All of us increased our communication from outside of school, or the office, we’ve all had to better master digital chats, forms, messaging and email.

If you work better in a team, you’re probably realizing how much you can do on your own. If you’re always organized and structured, you've been pushed to be more flexible and find new approaches and tackle new challenges. 

All of us continue to grow in different ways as this digital era continues to change and evolve!

3. Embracing the Evolution of Connections & Relationships

What ways have I become closer to colleagues, friends and family? 

We continue to spend more time on our devices, and our relationship with them continues to evolve. We seek advice and information on search engines, but we also have increased ability to connect on social media platforms for those same answers. In some cases, we’re unable to see each other because of distance and restrictions. 

In the past few weeks, our team has created values and demonstrated our values and our commitment to creating meaningful, authentic experiences for students abroad. We continue to serve our school communities as we prepare for the future. 

We’ve found new ways to connect with each other in positive ways. Virtual coffees and virtual meetups have become more popular. In the past, that text message or phone call wishing someone a happy birthday has become a Zoom with friends and family. 

Please make sure that you’re taking time to reflect on your own growth and the challenges that you’ve overcome these past few weeks and months! If you’re a teacher, professor or administrator, we would love to hear from you!

Click here to share your growth with us and your passion for teaching your students!