I have been in this business for more than half a century — 53 years to be exact. I love what I do, and I absolutely believe in it. What we do is worthwhile and life-changing. What we do lasts beyond the lives of the people we do it for, for generations, and that is no small thing.

Good salespeople make a living, but great ones understand that we also make a difference. If you don’t appreciate that, it’s tough to keep going when the going gets tough.

You don’t spend this much time doing anything without having some tough days, and maybe even some tough seasons. It’s easy to believe that top producers don’t have hard times. The truth is, we have more than most.

LeBron James currently holds the record for turnovers in the NBA. That’s not because he isn’t as good as other players. We know by his other accomplishments that isn’t true. It’s because he gets his hands on the ball more than other players.

Top producers don’t get to where they are because they don’t make mistakes. We, without a doubt, make more than most. The difference is we know what to do with those mistakes. We know what to do with opposition, obstacles and challenges.

LeBron knows what to do with a missed shot. So do I. He knows what to do when someone goes up to block him. So do I. He knows what to do when he’s had a bad day and he lets his team down. So do I. What we do with our challenges says more about who we are than what we do when things are effortless and comfortable. Everyone knows what to do when work works out. Learning what to do, where to turn, how to act when it doesn’t will be the difference maker for you.

Challenges come in all shapes and sizes. Our responses to those challenges should too. When we face obstacles, we often treat them all the same because we are driven to action by how we feel. We are uncomfortable, so we want to relieve our discomfort. But challenges come not to make us uncomfortable, but because there is an invitation to see change or be changed.

Challenges, in nature or in human existence, are designed to transform us, make us stronger or make us better. When we know that, we are not taken out, discouraged or thrown off by them. There are many different kinds of challenges.

In this presentation, I will look at five that are common in what we do: They are:

• Interruptions
• Opposition
• Destruction
• Resistance
• Despair

Each of these challenges is different, and our response to each needs to be different.

Interruptions: The thing to know about interruptions is that they are not a commentary on what you are doing. They simply “rupture” the path that you are on. To respond to them as if you have done something wrong is a mistake. Usually, people try to deal with them by changing behavior when they should be changing direction. Interruptions usually require a pivot, a planting of yourself in what matters and a change of direction without changing the way you do things.

Opposition: Opposition comes against you, though it’s not necessarily negative. Examples would be a difficult work environment, a new product or system that has to be learned, a new person to train, a new territory to establish yourself in. Again, opposition is not necessarily about you changing your behavior. It would be more likely that you need to make decisions to dig in to your circumstances. In other words, keep doing what you are doing and let your work speak for itself and produce the necessary results. Stay the course.

Destruction: These types of challenges render you useless on your current path and in your current behavior. This can be a failure on your part, or someone or something else, but the important thing to recognize is that there is nothing you can do about it but cut your losses and move on. It can be as small as a “no” or as big as a broken trust with a client or getting fired. Taking stock of where you are or how you move forward is important, but letting go is the first order of business.

Resistance: Resistance is different from opposition in that it invites adaptation and adjustment. We should not treat it like opposition by going on as we were, trusting in our actions. Instead, we have to let the nature of the resistance guide how we respond. We let an objection or a maybe act as an invitation for us to change the way we do things in order to convert the resistance into affirmation. The goal with resistance is to push back, not negatively, but to present a counteroffer to the resistance.

Despair: This is the challenge that comes from inside you. It can be a reaction to other challenges or to something going on in your life. This is often the most difficult challenge to overcome because we often try to fix it by more action when inaction is the answer. Regroup is what we need to do when we are challenged with despair. Stop and remember who you are and why you are doing what you do. Then move forward, renewed and ready for action.

The beauty of rebounding is that we should expect challenges. If we don’t encounter them, we are not working hard enough and/or we are not getting better at what we do. Rebounding from challenges makes you stronger and more confident. We are not designed to succeed all the time, but we are designed to overcome challenges every time. Seek to learn, evolve and grow beyond who we were yesterday.