How Do I Bear The Burden?

How do I bear the burden?

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This note will take a cursory look at the question: how do I bear the burden? Every adult and young adult alike know that life is synonymous with challenges.  And who can say life is a bed of roses, except maybe life has not laid his weight like an elephant on the shoulders of such a one.

The problems of life can be liken to   the hydra headed monster in Hercules. This is because when one challenges is overcome another reared its ugly head.

Although some problems are self-inflicted caused by our lifestyle and ignorance. However, you still have to depend on yourself to clean up the mess

Whether the challenges come as a result of your own faults or as a result of life sequence, you should be able to raise your head high as you dig into your toolbox for keys to unlock the solution and bear the burden associated with the pain.

Life Challenges is for your Benefits

How do I bear the burden? You and I can bear the burden that comes from the vicissitudes of life challenges by learning from our experiences. Experience as they say is the best teacher.

As you grow in experience, your capacity to master life’s difficulties ought to increase. This is because you have more tools to handle more of the challenges that life will throw at you. Be aware though that you need different keys to solve different difficulties.

The solution to a previous challenge may not work for a new one. This is why you have to apply your creativity to every new challenge every time.

In my life I have had to face many challenges that stretched me beyond my elastic limits. However,  I dug deep each time into my toolbox to find solution to the problems bedevilling me.

Many times the keys in my toolbox failed to solve many of my problems. At such times I simply wait out the cycle to complete it course and let the problem expire.

Yes some challenges have expiry date. It disappears when you have grasped the lesson it came to teach you. If you understand this, the question how do I bear the burden will be easier to deal with.

After I completed High School I faced a fork in the journey of life. I didn’t know how I was going to finance my university education as my father meagre Army pension could not see me through the University, while at the same time putting my siblings through high School.

My father advised me to forget the idea of going to the University and instead proceed to the Nigerian Army depot where Nigerian soldiers are recruited and trained. I declined this advice because I couldn’t bear go through what I saw the non commissioned soldiers went through when I schooled and lived in the barracks.

I opted instead to attend the elite Nigerian military University (NDA) to see if I could get admission to become a commissioned and a career soldier.

However, after trying three times and failing to get admitted each time, I gave up hope.

What was I to do next? I decided to take the bull by the horns and sought admission into a federal University where I got admitted without knowing how to pay my way through.

If I had the benefit of hindsight or even envisaged the suffering I would go through, I wouldn’t have embark on the suicide mission.
To say I suffered was an understatement. I went through hell as I couldn’t feed myself, buy textbooks, struggled to pay fees, and couldn’t pay for hostel accommodation.

I was always at the mercy and magnanimity of friends who always took pity on me and allow me  share their spaces.

Even  as I write this I wished I had spared myself the ordeal I went through getting a university degree and still finish at the bottom of my class.

During those hard times, I saw myself applying different creative techniques and using the power of visualization to survive.

Years after I left the University I started two businesses that failed, as well as wrote books and worked on several jobs I didn’t like. In between these I kept facing different challenges that bowled me over.

One of such challenge was when I had to pay rent and I didn’t have the money since I had just shut down my business for failing to gain traction.

Nevertheless, I remembered I had ran a Facebook ads for one of my books and  collected emails in the process. As I searched for money it occurred to me that I could send cold emails to the about 154 email addresses in my data base. I am glad to say that action saved the day as I made sales that helped me offset my rent.

But when I tried this method for another challenge it didn’t work. This goes to show that you must always be on your toes applying different solutions from your toolbox to different challenges as you increase your wealth of experience at tackling challenges.

Note: You can get my book: ” YOU CAN BE EXTRAORDINARY, BUT WILL YOU?” here on Amazon.

WAYS TO BEAR THE BURDEN OF LIFE’S CHALLENGES

Therefore, how do I bear the burden? I must say you have to stand up for yourself and take certain actions in your life. At least that is what I did during the tough times. The following steps can help you cope with the challenges and obstacles that life would place on your path.

ACCEPT PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR DECISIONS.

It’s always better to make a decision and go out to implement it and make it work. Whether these decisions are bad does not matter.

The most important thing is to make a decision and take action on them and not remain stagnated out of fear or doubt.
No matter the outcome know that the bulk stop and start with you, not the government, your parents, friends or anyone else.

Thus accepting personal responsibility is the only way out through the throes of disappointment. When you take personal responsibility for your actions you become the captain of your ship, and the captain of your life.
Shelving responsibilities and putting the blame on the doorstep of another is sheer stupidity and a waste of your time as God’s masterpiece and creation.

What accepting personal responsibility does for you is that you are able to see the lessons behind the experience and arrive at the solution faster than you would if living in self denial.

There’s power in a quiet mind

How do I bear the burden? By having a quiet mind and be free from tension.

Although it’s difficult to remain calm in the midst of daunting challenges and when the burden of life lay a heavy hand like an elephant on your shoulders.

Learning to be calm and free from tension in the face of hardship is a skill only a few possess. And you need have to master this skill to  rise above challenges.

This is one of the skills that’s going to help you cope with life’s challenges easily.

Think of Abraham Lincoln and how calm he was at the Oval Office during the civil war. And how he always take short naps most afternoons.

Think of Donald Trump and how calm he was when he was indebted to the banks in the early stages of his real estate business and almost declared bankruptcy.

Elon Musk when he started SpaceX and Tesla and sunk in all the savings he made from the sales of PayPal into the companies, and how calm he was when the companies were struggling and he was about to go bankrupt.

If these men can have inner peace and be calm in the midst of their challenges, it goes to show that they know something we don’t. Won’t you rather emulate them?

The power of a calmed mind helped each of them master life’s stumbling blocks occasioned by the challenges of life and reached solution that turned their situation around.

When you are calm in the face of negative situations your mind exudes power and confidence in your abilities to correctly handle the challenges at hand and find a better way to surmount them.

Tension blocks your creative powers and weaken your inner strength thus increasing the impact of the obstacles on you. To learn how you develop inner peace read my note, finally inner peace is possible in your heart.

Live in the present

How do I bear the burden? By learning to focus on the present than the future.

The hardest thing to do is to live in the present when you have challenges right left and centre. But it’s also unrealistic to live in the future and impossible to live in the past. The farthest thing away is a second ago. So it’s best to settle down and concentrate on the task before you. I mean the present is all you have, so make the most of it.
Living in the present can help you focus on the solutions and how to apply them to solve the problem. It’s very hard to think positive thoughts and worrying about the future when things are hard. It’s also impossible to think negative and positive thoughts at the same time. You have to choose which thoughts to occupy your mind in the present.

Controlling your thinking is a priceless discipline you may wish to inculcate.
When you live in the present it doesn’t mean you don’t plan for the future, what it means is that you detach yourself from the outcome of those plans.
The song One day at a time written by Marijohn Wilkin is apt here. It encourages people to live in the present and surrender their cares  to Jesus, a higher power or infinite intelligence.
This is the song in a nutshell.

“One day at a time, sweet Jesus,

That’s all I’m asking from you.

Just give me the strength to do

everyday what I have to do.

Yesterday’s gone, sweet Jesus,

And tomorrow may never be mine.

Lord, help me today, show me the way

One day at a time”.

Write down the challenges and suggest possible steps to surmount them.

How do I bear the burden? By writing down my challenges and coming up with solutions for each of the challenges.

There’s something about writing down your challenges as well as your goals. According to statistics those who write down their goals accomplish them faster than those who do not. Written goals have a way of solidifying and reprogramming your subconscious mind while providing you with ways to achieve them.

I think you should make it a habit of writing down your challenges and possible solutions in black and white.

Come up with possible first steps you can take to attack the problem. Begin where you are to implement the steps as you also take actions on each of the written steps in the list.

This could be calling a certain person, applying for a certain job or going out to get new clients.

If you do these before long the problem will gradually diminish and new opportunities and directions will come to you.
The most important thing is to take baby steps, and as your confidence and believe in yourself grows you can then make giant leaps

Live within your means and embrace minimalism.

How do I bear the burden? By living within my means.

Many people live their lives to impress others. They want people to think they have arrived. If you are such a person begin to make arrangements for an alternative accommodation in the village.

Sooner or later you will definitely crash. This is why I said at the beginning of this note that many of the challenges we grapple with are caused by us. When you live above your means to impress others your uncontrolled expenses will soon rise above your income.

Subsequently you will start borrowing to finance your fake lifestyle.
The earlier you ditched this lifestyle the better.

People are beginning to strive to live simple lives and remove all the drama and rasmatazz out of their lives- the term known as minimalist lifestyle or minimalism.

This means de-cluttering your excess baggages and living with only the minimum that are necessary for day-to-day living.

Most minimalist don’t have the illusion of impressing other people. They just want to simplify their lives and be happy.

If You can define the life you want, devoid of drama you can aim for a life of economic and financial freedom.

You can start with reducing your expenses by getting only the things you need and saving or investing the difference in a worthy investment. If you continue in this habit the time will come when your income from you investment or businesses will far outweigh your expenses. This is what financial freedom means.

Apart from achieving financial freedom, you can also have good health which is essential to enjoying life on earth.

Knowledge is power

How do I bear the burden? By acquiring knowledge and wisdom to tackle the challenges of the times.

The good book say “my people suffer because of lack of knowledge”. Many seemingly good people suffer unnecessarily because of lack of the right knowledge.

Ignorance is bliss. That is why people wallow blissfully in suffering. There is vast knowledge in the internet, knowledge that can help you harness goldmine in your life and from your business.
The internet contains millions of resources to make anybody a millionaire. But the problem is that we have wrong priorities. We prefer chatting with friends and fooling around on social media. And wasting valuable time which we could have use to bettering our lot and adding value to our lives.

Having the right kind of knowledge can not only help you be the master of your life , but can make you wealthy in all ramification.

Be contented and avoid greed

How do I bear the burden? By being content.

Greed is a direct cause of suffering in many countries. Greed affects us in two ways: People are victim of their greed, yet they will not learn.

Greedy people are target of several Ponzi schemes. Ponzi scheme owners see them as worthy customers. They Promise them juicy deals to turn over their money tenfold. Of course a greedy person without applying proper reasoning will jump on such offers therefore getting their fingers burnt.

Again and again the activities of these Ponzi schemes operators have left many greedy people suffered untold hardship.

The second kind of suffering is caused by greedy politicians who loot monies for development purposes and stashed them away in foreign banks. Thereby causing the poor masses to be impoverished.

It will interest you to know that both set of greedy people are never happy. They are always in search for that illusive pot at the end of the rainbow.
The cure for this is contentment. If they can learn to be contented with what life has provided for them, they would be happy. And until people realize this they will continue to suffer.

Take Intermittent Deep Breath

Whenever, I am tension soaked, I stopped to take a number of deep breath. And this immediately relaxes me. This is a valuable technique that can help anyone to immediately relax during the day.

This can quickly help you take charge and increase your ability to cope with life’s problems you face every day.

Sleep his a healer

When the hardship of life becomes too much to bear, try sleep. Sleep is a healer and regenerative. It can help replenish your strength when you are weak. It can clear the fog that becloud your mind. If use properly sleep can help increase your survivability.

Aim for 8 hours of sleep every night, and you will see that you will always have the energy to meet life exigencies.

I like to hear your opinions on this note “How do I bear the burden?”. Please leave your comments in the comments section below.

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