Life is good! There are times we say that or actually feel like shouting that to the hearing of who ever cares to listen. When dreams come true, when set goals are achieved, when promises are fulfilled, when there is not much to bother about but good things, we often have to agree with the LG Company that life is indeed good. However, there are times when life demands too much from us, there are times when things do not just work out as planned, there are times we face so intense difficulties that makes one wonder whether one will survive another day, there are times when everything seems torn apart and there are times things appear to have been turned upside down. With lots of erstwhile gainfully employed people losing their jobs, people losing their homes and investment earnings, no thanks to the global economic recession, one cannot but lose faith in LG’s slogan that life is good. Yea, life is good sometimes, but not all the time. Indeed, life is a disproportionate combination of the good, the bad and the ugly.

In the last two years, the nations of the world have been under intense pressure as an aftermath of the global economic meltdown, security/terrorism issues, global warming, natural disasters etc. World leaders have been facing the challenges of dealing with the ripple effects of the various misfortunes happening around the world, just as various business concerns the world over. The years have seen buildings and corporations collapse under the pressure of problems in these challenging times. There was so much news about depression and not much about sporadic growth and development. At the risk of sounding pessimistic, it is apparent that all is not well with the world, and as much as one would love to believe that things will get better, there is no doubting the fact that the current attempt is to get the world out of the debris of collapsed systems and reinforce weak structures from imminent collapse.

We are in a New Year and the whole world is still dealing with some of the terrible events that shook the world in the last decade. As much as one would have wished otherwise, we are not the only ones that survived 2010, some of the challenges we faced in the previous year also did. The truth is that challenges are part of the total life experience, we cannot do without them. However, our continued subsistence and survival depends on whether or not we overcome the challenges life throws our ways. A lot of people are under pressure for one reason or the other. There are people groaning under the heavy yoke of debt, there are people trying hard to break free from bad habits, there are those trying to resist the pressure to form bad habits, there are several single ladies who are under pressure to get married and start a family. There are marriages on the verge of collapse, there are young college undergraduates having difficulties maintaining good grades, there are graduates under pressure to get good jobs, there are those who are working under tension pressure to perform on the job or lose their means of livelihood, and there are businesses grappling to survive the hard times. The immigrant community in the US and indeed the whole country is no exception. Not with the rising rate of unemployment and the very many disappointments and dashed hope suffered in the previous year.

In one way or another, we are all under some kind of pressure, and as much as we would like to persuade ourselves that we do well under pressure, the fact remains that there is a limit to which everyone can hold off the pushes and pulls of life.  When life’s demands become too much, when life begins to take more than it is giving, the resulting pressure best explains the strange events we see happen in recent times.

The recent spate of suicides and random shoot outs in the US, Japan and Tunisia and Egypt all stem from stories of people who could no longer cope with life challenges, who caved in, deciding in some instances to take other people with them. Things got too bad and they quit holding up.  Unfortunately, the government and indeed families get too preoccupied with other things to pay attention to these people whose emotion have become fragile and eventually got the better of them. It appears nobody notices them until they snap, succumbing to the pressure after years of lone struggles.

The genesis of the crisis that saw the President of Tunisia out of government was a young unemployed man who could no longer withstand the pressure of poverty and decided to end it all; choosing the most excruciating means to make a point everybody would not take seriously until then.  How many more people like him do we have walking around the streets? How many people are presently feeling like they have been pushed to the wall by life bellows and are ready to take drastic measures to turn their fortune around or just make the world feel a bit of the pain they feel carrying their loads of despair. The question is, how many more of this ‘time bombs’ are still walking around, waiting for the appropriate time to go off and put an end to their miseries taking as many innocent people as possible with them?  How many more people do we have in our world making decisions they would not have ordinarily made if things had not been so tough?

Better still, how well are we dealing with the pressure we are experiencing in the relevant areas of our lives in recent times? Are we not all being bent in the wrong direction by the challenges we are facing? Why would people decide to end their lives and take as many people as possible with them? Why would a father decide to kill his children and die with them? When we succumb to pressure, in whatever form it comes, we let go of reasoning and act on sentiments, we lose our minds and act according to the shallow dictates of our situations. We all have to be conscious of the forces set in motion by our current situation to propel us to do what would undo us. We have to guide our actions and reactions to the difficult situation we often encounter and ensure that they do not push us off the edge.

Everyone has a reason to be sad, everyone has reasons to be angry, we just have to look inward and we will see what is not right about our lives. Every happy and successful individual the world is celebrating today has had and is still likely to have their moments of despair. We all have to take the challenging route sometimes because it’s the surest way to sustainable success. Challenges are not meant to destroy us but to make us stronger, hence when the pressure to give up on life or give up one’s dreams starts to build, we have to understand it’s a test of our willpower and endurance, it is no time to act in desperation, it is no time to break down and wallow in self pity, it’s a time to be calm and focused. Most times, there is not much one can do, but one has to do the little the situation allows, and control what can be controlled in the circumstances.

The pressure mounted by challenges is often intended to break one’s seal for life, to abort dreams and aspirations, to stall progress and cause perpetual failure. It is therefore wisdom for us to look out for the specific areas of our lives that are likely to be affected by the pressure we are facing and try hard to protect them to the best of our abilities. If you are not broken by the challenges in your life, you will certainly have a breakthrough, if you do not allow the prevalent difficulties to make you derail, you will turn out much better than you ever imagined.

As we all endeavor to deal with our individual challenges and the resultant pressure this year, we have to understand that success is dependent on our actions and reactions.  One’s disposition towards one’s struggles and challenges matters a lot. As bad as things might be, do not lose your values even if you have lost all your valuables. Do not let the present situation turn you into a monster, do not take out your frustration on other people, and especially those who may feel obliged to stand by you. There is nothing as scary as facing life challenges alone, so if you feel you are not getting any support from the people in your world, seek help.
If you have got people who care enough to support you during a difficult time, do not piss them off, and if you are left by friends and family to face the storm alone, do not take offence. It is your life and no one should be more concerned about it than you. Swim against the current, the river might just be flowing towards a cliff.

Hold on to whatever good thing life challenges is trying to wriggle out of your grip, do not give it up, do not give up on yourself, withstand the pressure  and you will soon be writing a unique story of your success  to inspire your world and future generations. Hang in there! Do not give up just yet.

Share Link: