What steps can be used to overcome obstacles and to implement successful strategy?

Here's how you blow past the obstacles. First, it helps to understand that obstacles come in three different flavors:

A. External Obstacles--These are obstacles outside of your control such as the economy, natural disasters, physical limitations, and the political climate.

B. Internal Obstacles--These obstacles are generally one-time issues but you have direct control over them, such as debt, cash flow, time availability, needed skills or talent.

C. Habitual Obstacles--These obstacles reflect how people get in their own way. They can only be removed with behavioral change.

To overcome obstacles business or personal, you must master these areas:

1. Embrace Self-Awareness

If you don't see the obstacle or believe it's a hindrance, you'll never reach your goals, blaming everything and everyone but the person responsible. This is particularly obstructive to resolving Habitual Obstacles. If realize your own prioritization was keeping you from what you needed to do. I could easily blame time as your enemy, but the enemy was actually your semi-conscious, daily rationalization that making money was almost always more important than health or learning. Once you admit that your own prioritization was misguided, you will do necessary adjustments in your behavior.

2. Use Time to Your Advantage

This is most important with External Obstacles. You must learn to manage your impatience and be ready when the smoke clears. The harder the obstacle, the more time it will take to overcome. Set a preliminary schedule with clear milestones so you can track forward or backward progress. This way you'll see the cumulative impact of miniscule change. This would help you manage the weight. You could see reductions in calorie intake and changes in how your clothing fit by comparing week to week.  Once you saw small progress, you are encouraged to put in more effort. With time comes momentum. And momentum is the best way to bust through big obstacles.

3. Commit to Focused Discipline

It's easy to get distracted with the present. Business people are just that--busy! There is always a fire to put out or a new critical opportunity to distract you. True discipline is about making yourself emotionally commit time and effort to your benefit regardless of external factors.You should know you have to make myself accountable for your actions with what the late, great Chet Holmes called "Pig Headed Discipline." you must clear out every distraction and vowe to add nothing new to your plate until you make progress. Make the obstacle the No. 1 priority and focus on it every day until it's gone.

4. Engage Your Own Creativity

Create rhythm in your life so you can freely engage the creative part of your brain for problem solving. There's no better place to apply expansive thinking than on issues holding you back. Give deliberate thought to what you wanted to accomplish on your trips for instance and set a plan. Quit banging your head against the same brick wall over and over. Take time to think things through and find creative solutions that bring fun and progress to the grind of obstacle removal.