Difficult Situations

“Why can’t I be happy everyday?”  I remember this question asked by a cute little girl when her toy doll was snatched unexpectedly by a bully playmate. It made me smile as I remember asking the same question even as an adult. Why are there difficult situations we have to face on a constant basis?

 

We go to school; we work hard and do our best. We take exams, we get scolded by our teachers, and we may even get a spanking from parents when we flunk.  Then it is college years with feasibility studies, thesis, defense, and probably humiliation in front of our classmates. Then we get so nervous as we apply for a job; sometimes our nervousness keeps us from applying and end up jobless for months.

 

The hard situations do not end after landing a job. We may get bullied by old-time co-employees or end up with jerk boss. After an employment career you may have decided to build your own business. But business associates turned out to be goons and squeezed you of your hard-earned investment. You ask yourself, “When will these difficult situations end?”  

 

Do you see the pattern? Normally, people will keep trying to level up, to be successful. We want more success than we are experiencing, not because we are greedy but simply because we desire a better life. I don’t see any wrong in this type of goal. It is just natural and noble, I would say, to want to give your family a better standard of living than you’ve had when you were a kid. However, a problem occurs when under difficult situations we start thinking that our life is the way it is because of destiny or because of someone else’s fault.

 

You see, there is no shortcut to success. Most lottery winners end up with lives even more miserable than the days before they won. They got their so called success without building any skills and going through the difficult times. They then spurge their winnings and end up poor again.

 

The truth of the matter is that we will never be happy unless we are productive. A wealthy person does not mean that his or her life isn’t hard. It is just hard in ways that are different from those who are broke. Wealth does not make a person’s life problem-free; he could have sleepless nights as he thinks of his business investments. Like it or not, we all face difficult situations on a constant basis because we live in a fallen world.

 

Relationships fail, parents neglect, trusted friends cheat, kids disrespect, spouse betrays; and the list could go on and on. We face different challenges of a complicated society and many things happen that are beyond our control. Though some situations are beyond our control, I again submit to you that this should not be a reason to start the blaming game. It is just so; we face difficult situations on a constant basis. As surely as fire sparks fly upwards so do troubles come to every person.

Thus to keep afloat, we need to process the experience when we go through difficult situations. The difficult situations are merely challenges that will enable us to emerge stronger and wiser. And thus enable us to continue in our quest to achieve more and prepare ourselves to meet even bigger challenges.

 

True success may not come by getting more or doing more; true success comes by elimination and not addition. We need to remove the clutters of things, activities and sometimes even keeping away from people that hinder us from experiencing true success. True success boils down to loving God and loving the people who will cry in our funeral.

 

Let us not allow difficult situations to define us.  It is not whether we win or lose in these difficult situations but how we rise up to the challenges to continue to focus only on what is important and not on what is fancy.