In the compelling and powerful words of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, often quoted as being the founder of the Positive Psychology movement, ‘Of all the virtues we can learn, no trait is more useful, more essential for survival, and more likely to improve the quality of life than the ability to transfer adversity into an enjoyable challenge.’

In his book FLOW, the psychology of optimal experience he tells incredible stories of how prisoners-of-war survive solitary confinement by creating mental challenges to control consciousness during unbelievable adversity. The more stressful the situation, the more important it is to define challenges to move towards.

What about you? When situations in life are somewhat out of your control what goals can you create to challenge yourself? Sign up for a 10km charity run, self-publish that e-book that’s inside of you, go down a dress size…

More words of wisdom from the man himself, ‘when adversity threatens to paralyze us, we need to reassert control by finding a new direction…, a direction that lies outside external forces.’

What goals can you put your attention on to counterbalance rising stress levels, discover happiness and improve the quality of your life?