[This post is part of a series on internal objections and blocks and how to overcome them. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.]

I love covering objections and blocks in my seminar. More than any other, that section results in people applying the seminar’s contents to their lives and solving their problems. They change their mode from digesting and evaluating the information to using and applying it.

I love to see how quickly what seemed like abstract information suddenly becomes useful tools to solve problems, lead people, improve careers, and improve lives.

More than that, people come together. The break after this exercise is where people in the seminar start making job offers to each other.

Since this exercise follows my covering the Model and Method in the seminar, they use those tools. Outside that context this exercise won’t be as effective, but it still puts forth one the main strategies for overcoming blocks and obstacles — getting other people’s perspectives.

The exercise

1. Meet in groups (ideally 3-5)

If you can’t form a group, enlist at least one other person’s help.

2. Share plan you created before

Before this exercise in the seminar, attendees created a plan for something significant in their lives. If you have an obstacle or block in your life, it means it exists in some plan. Clarify that plan, explain it to the others, and explain what obstacles and blocks you foresee.

3. Others predict and list obstacles and blocks

Besides the obstacles and blocks you foresee, ask them to anticipate others.

4. Think of ways to avoid them, reframe them, or overcome them

The key here is not to try to overcome the obstacles and blocks head on, which often reinforces them. Since many will appear as advantages from other perspectives, reinforcing them makes progress harder.

This step’s key is to look at the obstacles and blocks from different perspectives. It’s amazing how much another person’s perspective, combined with the goal of looking for different ways of looking at the problem, can transform would-be obstacles into opportunities.

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