Staying in control in difficult situations

We determine how we react to external circumstances

Not everything can always be planned and not everything always works out the way we want it to. There are phases in which we are sometimes more and sometimes less challenged. However, the decision as to how we perceive, experience and handle a situation always lies with us.

If we have the conviction that we can decide for ourselves how we react to external circumstances and influence the outcome, we have a high level of self-efficacy. We are then confident that even in challenging situations we have the opportunity and the ability to change something about our situation. We do not have the feeling that something will happen to us or against us, but assume that we are in control. We do not attribute our successes to external circumstances, such as a “lucky hand” or chance, but are instead convinced that we have contributed to this success ourselves.

We can train the feeling of inner strength

We can train and consolidate this feeling of inner strength. However, we need to experience that we can influence and change our situation. The more often we have this experience, the more we trust in our abilities and our resilience. We no longer see our successes as the result of a lucky coincidence, but recognize that these results are the consequence of our actions and can therefore be repeated.

What we have done once, we can do again!

We have to (re)learn that we can exercise a certain amount of control in every situation. At first, it may be that we only regain control over how we see a situation before anything can change on the outside. It helps if we become aware of our strengths and resources. Think about what you have already achieved, what difficulties you have already successfully overcome and what successes you can point to.

It is best to make a written overview and then consider which characteristics you can derive from it:

This overview should make you aware that you have resources at your disposal that have helped you to successfully overcome challenges in the past.

As we have already established: What we have done once, we can do again. But in order to experience this, we have to start taking action. We need to gain experience. If we then reflect on our strengths, consciously use them again and again and try them out, we will be able to fall back on them more easily in the future.

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