“Without faith, hope and trust, there is no promise for the future and without a promising future, life has no direction, no meaning and no justification.”
For those who never heard the 3 Nice Stories, here they go:
Story 1: Once all villagers decided to pray for rain, on the day of the prayer all people gathered, and only one boy came with an umbrella. That’s faith.
Story 2: When you throw a one-year-old baby in the air, he/ she laughs, because he/ she knows you will catch him/ her. That’s trust.
Story 3: Every night we go to bed, we have no assurance to wake up alive the next morning, yet we set the alarm for the morning. That’s hope.
Good times do not last forever, but so do bad times. They do not last forever or for that matter of fact, they don’t even last for too long.
But those moments sound and feel like moments of disaster, doom and defeat and we experience emotions of frustration, anger, depression and much more. And in those moments and emotions, we tend to make more mistakes then ever and complicate our situations further. So, are there simpler ways to get over tough times? May be, may be not depending on how you look at it and how you react to the situation you are in. Have faith in your own self and your ability, trust good things can and will eventually happen and hope for the best. Well, having said that, there are other things that you can do too.
Accept the person or the situation
Understanding is Acceptance. Only with acceptance comes recovery. The best thing one can do when it’s raining is to Let it rain. Accept what is, let go of what was and have faith in what will be. If you are in a certain situation, it is because of either a person or a situation. When you hold that thought or grudge, you do not move forward. That feeling of resentment can only take you backward. So the best thing to do in an unsavory situation is to accept the person or the situation. As they say, when you deny or ignore, you delay; when you accept & face, you can only conquer.
Focus on what you can control
You may not be able to control every situation and its outcome, but you can control your attitude and how you deal with it. If you spend your time and energies on trying to focus on what you cannot control, you are going to be more frustrated than ever. Instead, when caught up in a tough situation, operate from your position of strength and not your position of weakness.Control the things you can control and have faith that things will happen.
Inhale positivity and exhale negativity
A negative thinker sees a difficulty in every opportunity and a positive thinker sees an opportunity in every difficulty. It is up to you where you want to be. No matter where you want to be or where you are headed to, you are bound to be challenged by challenges. So despite where situations or people (including your own self) land you in, stop holding to what hurts and make room for what feels good. Never forget how blessed you are. Don’t be negative when you have so much to be positive about.
Follow your heart
There is wisdom in following your heart, because if you always follow your mind, you will always act on logic and logic does not always lead to happiness. So it is important sometimes to trust the wisdom of your heart & your soul. That is why there is merit in trusting your intuition. You don’t need to explain or justify your feelings to anyone, just trust your own inner guidance, your heart and you can be rest assured to reach the right path. So stop thinking too much and complicating your life, trust your dreams, your heart and your story.
Get Creative
Creativity is just connecting things, connecting the dots. It is seeing what everyone else has seen, and thinking what no one else has thought. So when life throws challenges at you, you just need to think creatively and what you can create with the challenges. Turn problems into opportunities, of course it is not easy, but so is nothing in life. Life as they say, is a continuous exercise in creative problem solving.
Show Gratitude &Forgive
When you are thankful for what you have, you are always rewarded with more. Try to stay positive and things will get better. Holding grudge against people or situations, can only make you bitter, not strong. Forgiving on the other hand does not make you weak, it sets you free. The first to apologize is the bravest. The first to forgive is the strongest and the first to forget is the happiest. So you choose what you want in life.
Life goes on, whether you choose to move on and take a chance in the unknown, or stay behind, locked in the past thinking of what you could have done is a choice you have. Have Faith, Trust & Hope and move on.People change, things go wrong but remember life goes on.
Infact, when a train goes through a tunnel and its gets dark, you do not throw the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust that you are going to come out. Similarly, when you are struck in terrible situations, “Trust that no matter how dark your situation is, you will come out.”
Sri Bharatam is the Founder & Chief Mentor of Kuza Biashara Limited, a capacity building organization coaching youth & SME owners across Africa. Sri can be reached @Sbharatam or sri@kuzabiashara.co.ke. This article first appeared on Page 17 of The Business Daily Newspaper of October 11, 2016.
