Many clients have asked about how to keep moving forward toward their dreams when what's appearing in life seems to be pushing them backward or setting up roadblocks.

I know how this feels, and have experienced it countless times. The tips below will help you stay focused and energized, and keep you on your way to your future life visions, despite the hiccups and bumps that emerge.

Don't Let What Appears in the Present Fool You
We often mistake what's appearing in our lives today for what will always be. This is not so. What is happening in your life and work now is a culmination of many factors (your beliefs, your patterns of behaving, your past actions, etc.), but your future can and will look very different, if you let it. For instance, if you're struggling with money now and always have, this doesn't necessarily mean you are doomed to battle with money your whole lifetime.

Begin now to see what's happening today as information - evidence of what is working beautifully, and also what isn't. Use this information to guide you to make some needed changes in your expectations, thinking, and actions so that what you dream of can indeed become your reality.

Appreciate What You Have While Being Excited for What is Coming

When we're facing hardship or struggle, it's very difficult to achieve a state of appreciation. But appreciating where you are is essential to bringing into your life more positive events and circumstances.

Appreciating where you are means that you understand that you've co-created it, and you embrace what your life is giving you as a way to expand what you want more of.

Raging against where you are in life is like rolling a ball uphill over and over, and being angry that it keeps rolling back down at you. Either change how and where you roll the ball, or stop feeling resentful at what is (or better yet, do both)!

Take time each day to appreciate the good that you've created in your life thus far. More of it will surely come.

Don't Listen to the Naysayers
When you're feeling down about your tough times, you sometimes experience negative people who think they know best and more than you. These naysayers often say,"I told you so!" or "I knew you'd have a hard time with that! You should give it up."

My best advice is to turn a deaf ear to the naysayers, and focus instead on those who are both compassionate to you and also encouraging and uplifting. Seek out those who believe in you 3000%, who trust in your capabilities without reservation.

Sure, we sometimes need to hear difficult advice, but make sure the advice you heed is from an empowering, positive source. Ignore counsel that feels wrong, diminishing, or negative, or is based on someone else's agenda.

Surround yourself instead with those who want you to be all you can be in life and work.

Ask for Help
Finally, in tough times, we need to ask for help. It's time to let go of the need to be perfect, right, or invincible. Ask for assistance and support to get you through.

An encouraging friend, mentor, family member, or coach can be of great help when times are hard. He/she can help you see beyond what you're experiencing, make sense of it in terms that are meaningful to you, and connect you to the realization that you're not alone.

I've found too that the best kind of support comes from your "higher" self - the dimension of you that experiences life from a broader perspective than your ego-mind is capable of. You can access insight from your higher self by forging a relationship with it, connecting with your higher insight and knowledge by asking yourself questions each day, and listening for the answers.

When you get these answers, trust them, and act on them. Your higher self won't steer you wrong. Check it out.

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Tough times are bound to occur. When they do, the question is, "How may I use this situation to inform, uplift, and support me as I continue on the path that compels me?"

Remember:
"You gain strength, courage, and confidence
by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do."