Hard times, harsh condition, unexplainable situations, difficult times, adversity do come to people unannounced. Some people used to have everything working for them and suddenly calamity hits them. I mean they became broke with nothing to live by again. As I write now, someone just got into serious trouble, while someone just receives good news; alert! Do you understand what I mean? In this piece, I want to show you what to do when trouble comes.
The first thing I want you to know is that when trouble comes, God knows about it. He’s aware of what you are going through. He approves of it and he will see you through. Ones you learnt the lessons He wants you to learn, bingo you will be out within a short time. Pains in our lives should not be for light-years away, it should be for a very short time. If your hard times are lasting for a long time please check, maybe something else is behind it. The main reason you are going through this trouble is that you ignore the language of pains. Trouble is saying to you, change, change, change. But you are refusing to change. Change right now and by tomorrow your difficult times will be over.
How do you bounce back after you have tasted some measure of success and you went down broke again?
The cheering news is that when you can overcome hard times, you become a better person who now has some secrets which others don’t know. Please note that it, not the trouble that comes your way that is important but how you handle the trouble. In the real sense, the trouble is not designed to make you bitter, but to make you a better person.
Years ago, I was kicked out of the house by my family. Oh, how I roamed the streets with nowhere to lay my head. I decided to leap of faith. I left the shore of Nigeria and arrived in a new country with coins jingling in my pocket. I don’t know anybody here, nowhere to stay. I started sleeping under the staircase of an uncompleted church. With no money for food and I don’t want to beg anybody for money, I asked myself a question that changed my life forever. Why should I sit down here under the staircase and die? That day, I trekked over ten kilometres to the city centre where I hanged around the newspapers vendor stand. It was that day I saw a news item on the front page of the newspaper and I got a pen and paper from the vendor and wrote a rejoinder to the editor. My piece was published. Guess what, that published piece got me a job with the Nigeria High Commission. After working for three years, I got to my office one day and resigned my job. The officer who knew what I went through before I got the job said I was hallucinating. He went and hid my letter. I asked him to bring out the letter and submit to the authority. Well, what I wanted to go and do didn’t work out as planned. I was back to square one. Indeed, I started hallucinating.
But instead of cursing my stars and bemoaning my fate, I went to buy lots of second-hand books and went to hire a room in a village and started to read and write every day. After three years, I got back the same job. By this time, two officers have worked on my desk and left. When I returned to my desk, I have handwritten about 20 books. You see, hard times are not palatable but if you know how to extracts its juices, you will always be grateful to God for your time during adversity. Difficult time will help you to grow your resilience and mental muscle. It is during difficult times that you know the people who are your true friends and those who are clamouring around you just because of what they can gain from you. Napoleon Hills said, “Every adversity, every failure, every heartbreak, carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”
When excruciating adversity comes, you must have one overarching goal you want to reach and focus single-minded on that goal. Don’t focus on the trouble and don’t take on negative habit. Don’t take it personally. What is happening to you can happen to anybody. See it as a good thing. It is happening to you not because you have committed any sin. Separate yourself from what is happening to you. You lose money, you lose a job, and you suddenly became broke. Don’t play the victim, don’t go everywhere explaining your lamentation to everybody. Majority of the people you are telling your troubles too are happy that you are having the problem. They will just be asking you unnecessary questions.
They won’t help you. Don’t start to think that everybody is hurting you. Don’t even believe those lies that it the witches in your village that are behind your downfall. Don’t be a pawn in the hands of charlatan deliverance ministers. Even the little money you have before things turns around, they will collect it from you. Hard times is not going to kill you. It will only make you stronger. You are not heading for a crash, you are just going through hard times. Distraction will come from all angles but stay focused. Don’t complain, don’t bemoan your fate, nothing do you. You will come out stronger and better. Document what you want to accomplish with all its details. Dream and think about it at all time. Read it to yourself every day when you wake up in the morning and before you go to bed in the night. Why is this important? This is important because when you don’t have something you want to achieve, you will fall for anything during difficult times.
Always note that difficult times are a time of setback to comeback. During difficult times, don’t isolate yourself. Isolation is dangerous. Reach out to people, not to go and beg them for money, but for encouragement and them to lift your hands in prayer. You need tons and tons of encouragement when you are facing hard times. Always know that the reason why you are going through this difficult time is that you come out and become a better person and have a better life. When you are going through hard times, don’t despair, don’t live a careless life, and don’t go drinking. Drinking alcohol will not take away the troubles, it will rather acerbate it. Don’t sleep all day long, don’t stayed glued to television, don’t waste all your time surfing the internet. I know these are easy things to do. Accept the fact that you are going through hard times and you will soon come out of it. Sit down and write out the action plan of what you need to do to come out your hard times. Nobody will do it for you. It is your trouble and it is you that will design your plan to come of it.
Don’t let difficult times define you. There must be something you have working for you. Difficult times will not completely take over your life. You may not have money, but there is something you have, it could be a very small skill, a talent that you can use to bring yourself out of adversity. That is the thing you can start your life with. It will create a small window for you from where you can leap of faith. When I got into a new country where I don’t know anybody I have only one talent which is writing. One day, I wrote something and it was published in the newspaper. A very important person read it and wrote back to me. That fellow drove his car and came to meet me where I was staying. He was shocked by his bone when he saw me. According to him, he thought I was one of the most influential people in society. He moved me out of that place that day. Your gift will make a way for you. By the grace of God, my ability to write and speak has taken me to places I never dreamt I could be. You know I used to be the managing editor of an influential magazine.
Create the image and the kind of life you want to live after your difficult times are over because it is going to be over. A happy, gregarious, prosperous, bouncing, healthy and joyous life.
The angels are still in the whirlwinds.
Thank you for allowing me to share this my candid thoughts with you today. You are not born to suffer, there is a seed of greatness within you. Only you can make your life a masterpiece. You have an option, either you sit down and bemoan your fate or use your mind and hand to design a workable plan and go live your life intentionally. The choice is yours. Thank you and God bless you. God bless Nigeria.
Come out of difficult times as soon as possible, order for this book “Change your Choice, Design your Future” by Oye Arikanki” This book is a revolution. ORDER from anywhere in the world. Inbox me. Email: matthewoyebooks@yahoo.com
