Roadblocks have a way of stopping people from achieving their goals. However, according to author and psychiatrist Dr. Norman Rosenthal, adversity is actually a key ingredient for success.


Rosenthal discussed the upside of dealing with challenge in a HuffPost Live appearance on Monday with host Nancy Redd.


"I was looking at the stories in my own life from which I learned lessons -- from myself and the people I’ve come across -- and as I looked at these stories, it occurred to me that you learn the most when things go wrong," Rosenthal said. "And the bigger the adversity, it seems, the better the lesson."


Rosenthal, whose new book, "The Gift Of Adversity[1] ," delves into the advantages of obstacles, also noted that those who have dealt with adversity should actually be more employable.


"If you’re hiring somebody, I don’t think you want somebody who’s had a perfect life because they’re not going to know how to deal with things when things go wrong," he said. "It’s not just the adversity itself, it’s what you do with the adversity -- how you grow and become a bigger person and a more resilient person… and a more compassionate person as a result of the things that happen to you -- those are, in my view, marks of success."


Watch the clip above and check out the full video of Rosenthal’s appearance on HuffPost Live.[2]


For more on The Third Metric, click here[3] .



Also on HuffPost:




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  • 1. Set Your Priority For Learning While Aiming To Win


    When you make it your priority to learn something new, all of your attempts to succeed at anything become experiments. Your aspiration is to learn more so you can move closer to your aim, rather than insisting that you hit the bull’s eye right off the bat. Do this and something interesting happens -- you begin hitting what you’re aiming for more quickly.




  • 2. Change Your Model Of Failure To A Model Of Experimentation


    When you substitute the word "failure" for "experiment," with your aim to learn something new, your fear of failure weakens, and your love of experimenting increases. When you replace the words, “I failed” with the words, “I experimented,” you take on the role of experimenter, and you take the sting out of failure. Now, everything you do becomes an experimental stepping stone, moving you closer to success.




  • 3. Increase Your Experiment Rate And Escalate Your Success Pace


    It’s a given that the more we experiment with things in our lives, the more we succeed in life. Doesn’t it logically follow that we should increase our experiment rate if we want to increase our success rate? The secret is to aim to learn a new lesson with every experiment. That’s what scientists in a laboratory do. When failed attempts to succeed are seen as experiments, it puts the attempts on the same side as success: Experiment/success. But, when you see your attempts as failures, you place the attempt on the opposite side of success: success-failure. Now it feels lousy.




  • 4. See Curiosity As Your Fuel


    If you make it one of your life-roles to be an experimenter, then curiosity becomes a valuable quality. Curiosity drives experimenters to experiment. And curiosity is a mental muscle that can be strengthened with each experiment. That’s because with each experiment you become more curious about how to get it right. Anytime you fail to experiment, your curiosity level drops. When you stop experimenting, you stop being curious and you stop growing -- you stop winning.




  • 5. Celebrate Your Experiments Regardless Of The Outcome


    You are an experimenter and the world is your laboratory. Celebrate the fact that you are so fortunate to have the world as your lab. Be deliberate with your experiments, and celebrate, celebrate, celebrate. Soon you’ll be celebrating victory after victory after victory.