A business obstacle is just a challenge you haven’t solved yet.

It’s inevitable that you’ll face obstacles in growing your business. For some of you, the obstacles will be internal, such as lack of confidence, fear, worry that you’re not smart enough or capable enough. For others of you, the obstacles may be external, such as a lack of capital, need for business advice, or lack of a strong and supportive business mentor.

Whatever your specific obstacles, know, first, that everyone faces a challenge in their business, at some time or the other. The people who overcome their obstacles are those who have a routine or process for systematically addressing obstacles and moving ahead anyway.

Since the external obstacles are sometimes easier to address- you can get a business loan, perhaps, or borrow money from a family member; you can find business advice in multiple places, and seek out business mentoring as well; it may make more sense for us to focus on combating the internal obstacles, such as fear, doubt, and lack of self confidence.

I have a three step process for overcoming these kinds of personal challenges.

First, I remind myself that these challenges are a sign of continued growth. Obstacles only arise when we’re actually moving forward and taking action. If it doesn’t seem awkward, or strange, I’m not doing this right.

Second, I connect with my “why” and my reasons for doing what I’m doing. So, for instance, if I am about to speak on stage to a large crowd, and feeling a bit nervous or ramped up, I pull out pictures of my wife and sons, and remind myself that I’m up here on stage, speaking for them- I’m making sales to support them, and to support our life together. Each time, this helps me connect with the bigger picture of what I’m doing, and takes me out of my immediate feelings of nervousness or anxiety.

The third process I use is to make sure I have a positive story to tell myself, no matter what the outcome. Let’s say I did my best, but the results didn’t turn out exactly as I wanted. If I want to use this experience as a stepping stone, rather than a stopping point, I better have a very good story to carry forward so I can shape this experience into something better. It is important to balance between constructive self feedback and destructive self criticism.

If you want to be unstoppable in your business, you must find a way to overcome every obstacle- and the best way to do it, I’ve found, is by creating and using a simple system to consciously and actively break through your barriers.