How to decide the best course of action for any challenge

In the punk rock song, Lovato steps out of her struggle with substance abuse, into a bath tab full of water and the public perception of her struggle with addiction.

Heavy dark make-up on a white background, she opens up about her insecurities with the media, her own negative thoughts about her experience and asks to be free.

"I'm alive by the skin of my teeth/Won't you try to have some mercy on me. Asking why doesn't make it easier/Go easier on me," she sings in the chorus.

Lovato suffered an overdose in 2018 that was later revealed to have caused multiple strokes and brain damage.

Even without an international platform to express one's challenges and sort through the pain, the world is a stage for exorcising or exercising some 'demons' that make everyday living an escape.

Unfortunately for the singer, she has had to address her personal struggles, through her passion and job, in the face of scathing public criticism.

Here is an exercise to help overcome helplessness and regain control.

Write an optimistic self-explanatory script for yourself using this framework to change the way you look at your personal experience.

The world might not be a stage and life might not be a movie, but to the mind movies and reality are the same. Sort through any challenging situation to find your role and execute it to the best of your abilities and energy.

Personal perspective, decide where the issue is coming from and where it it best suited to be solved.

"A person who classifies an event as internal will see themself as the cause, rather than an external factor. For example, 'I’m terrible at public speaking'(internal), as opposed to 'people in the crowd always distract me by talking so I can never give a good presentation' (external)" says Dr. Seligman.

Duration of effects from an event, assess whether the challenge will have short-term effects or if it has long lasting effects and decide what you can and can't do about it.

"This is the explanation of the lifespan of an event and whether the experience of the event will have permanent effects or not. Example: 'I always get laughed at whenever I speak up in a meeting. It’s happened to me since grade school' (stable), as opposed to 'I didn’t get enough sleep last night and my colleagues laughed at me when I mixed up a couple words when I spoke up about something today but it was only because I was tired and wasn’t thinking clearly. (temporary)"

Restrain the event to a particular setting, assess whether it is consistent across all environments or confined to one.

"For example, “I don’t enjoy meeting people at meet-ups” (global), as opposed to “I didn’t really enjoy chatting with the people at the last meet-up we went to” (specific).

Taking personal responsibility for life experiences is the rave now but the 'how' is the tricky part.