OVERCOMING ADVERSITY SERIES (6)

EMBRACE THE PRESENT

In my previous post, I wrote about Releasing Your Past. I suggested a few strategies we can use to achieve that. One of those strategies was to “Embrace the Present.” I believe it is crucial to our life, if we are to move on from the pain and hurt of the past and encounter the kind of future we envision.

In today’s post, I intend to help you better understand what it means to Embrace the Present and show you exactly what you can do to better your lot and move on to you colourful future.

Adversity, whatever it means to you, is a time of change – the old conditions do not exist anymore, and new ones have come, which of course is not what you desire. Everything changes. In fact, change is an ever present in the cycles of life. Each person deals with change differently and how we handle change determines what outcome we experience.

Whatever change we experience can affect us physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. You may have lost a job, a loved one, or a lucrative contract. Your business might have failed, or you may have failed an examination, or you may have sustained a life altering injury. Whatever you current situation you can rise from it and become a better person.

Life is a present – the present moment, the NOW. It is not the past, because it is dead and gone – it holds no promise. Today holds the chance to build new dreams, achieve new goals and successes, and show new kindnesses and serve others. If you envision a colourful future, you must start painting portions today; for your brightest future hinges on your ability to pay attention to the present.

We destroy the present when we focus on events of the past. We tend to feel emotions which make us angry, feel fear, shame and regrets. When that happens we abandon the present, which is life, for the past, which is dead. We also annihilate the power of the present with fear, anxiety and worry and take up residence in the past or an imaginary future.

How can we embrace the present?

“Of the sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, their chiefs were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their command” (1 Chronicles 12:32)

Clearly, for anyone to be in command in the affairs of life, they need to have an understanding of what times they are in and also know exactly what to do. Here are a few things you need to appreciate and do:

Recognise adversity as a season in your life: there are seasons in everyone’s life just as there are seasons in nature. Recognition of it will transform the quality of your life. The preacher noted: “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

See your current condition as one of those seasons. Every tree knows how to go through autumn and winter and come blooming fabulous at spring time. We all love spring time, don’t we? We too can transition from life’s autumn and winter (when we seem to lose our sparkle and all the stuff we love to rave about) to the spring and summers of life.

Do not argue with reality: what is, is. Everything that happens just “is.” There’s no point arguing and complaining about it. Your thought and attitude should not be that of a victim. That will rob you of power because your focus will be on the past – what went wrong, who is to be blamed etc, instead of finding or crafting a solution.

Choose the good in your current conditions. Every situation that looks bad has an equal amount of good. That’s the universal law of polarity, so choose to apply it to your situation; for whatever you call it, it becomes for you. The Apostle Paul knew the negative impact of arguing and complaining when he exhorted: “Do everything without complaining or arguing” (Philippians 2:14 NLT).

Complaints work against you in three ways. First, no one wants to hear negative news about your problems. Second, complaining reinforces your own pain and discomfort. So why keep replaying painful, negative memories? Third, complaining, by itself, accomplishes nothing and diverts you from the constructive actions you could be taking to improve your situation.

Avoid Rationalisation: Do not rationalise or justify your conditions. Someone has said, “It is the talent of the weak to convince themselves they suffer for something when they suffer from something.” Refuse to play the blame game, no matter how justified you feel.

Avoid the Scarcity Mentality; Adopt an Abundant Mentality: the mindset with which we approach problems, challenges and people is very crucial to our success or otherwise. We can choose to operate or act from a scarcity or abundance mentality. But if we are going to be successful then we must consciously choose and strategise to operate and function from an abundant mentality.

People with a scarcity mindset believe that their resources are finite and that there’ is not enough to go around. They say, “look at all the resources we need,” whereas those with an abundant mindset believe that their resources are infinite – that there’s enough for everyone. . They say, “look at all the resources we have.”

Scarcity thinkers believe mistakes are disasters. They are complainers and murmurers. Abundant thinkers, on the other hand, always believe they can recover and learn from their mistakes. They are problem solvers – able to separate people from problem.

Envision the kind of future you want: as I mentioned in my previous post (Release the Past), the past is powerlessness and futility. The present is a moment of creation and power. In this present moment, you can create or design the architecture of the future you want to have. It is in this moment that you define the direction, or course for your life. You must understand that, if you are to experience anything in life you must create it in this moment. It must exist in some form right now, or it doesn’t exist at all. The seeds of the future that you want to create must be sown today.

Avoid Procrastination: Life is too short to wait a minute longer. There is no someday; there is only right now. Do not wait for perfect conditions, for none exist anywhere. Also do not wait till you have the wherewithal before you start taking action that improves your current conditions. Start now where you are, with what you have and you’ll be amazed at the progress you make. NOW is the acceptable time. Do it NOW!

Thank you for reading. I trust the information you find here is helpful. I wish you all the best! Cheerio...