Thae Thiri Kyaw - Facing and overcoming difficulties

Overcoming difficulties

Everyone has their own difficulties and problems. Since each person lives differently, the difficulties they face can be the same or different depending on the situation and time. It is not easy to conclude that every time a person smiles and laughs, wears nice clothes, they have no problems, and everything is fine. Those who hide their difficulties and problems because they don't want others to see them are also miserable. Some people complain about their difficulties and problems, while others hide them because they are afraid that others will see them. In any case, everyone has their own difficulties, even if they don't realize it.

So, every time we encounter a problem, we don't have to give up and say, "This is the only problem I have." It's how we deal with those problems that shape our lives.

I would like to give you an example of the difficulties we face in life that I read online. Many people probably already know this story. Once, a father and daughter were talking about how they were facing a series of problems and how they were making them miserable, and how they were coming one after another, so much so that they could not think of a solution. The father did not say anything and went into the back kitchen. Then he turned on the stove and heated three pots of water at the same temperature. He put potatoes in the first pot, eggs in the second pot, and coffee beans in the third pot. After a while, he called his daughter and asked her to look at the three pots and what she saw. She said, “Potatoes, eggs, and coffee.” Then the father calmly continued his story. “Yes... Potatoes, eggs, and coffee beans were put into the same pot of hot water, but the potatoes softened from their original hard state over time. The egg yolks softened. The coffee beans, combined with the heat from below and the normal hot water, made a delicious cup of coffee. Similarly, my daughter.... In the world, people face the same problems, but some cannot cope with them and give up easily. Some people are led astray by these problems. Some people are able to overcome these problems and build a better life. What kind of person you want to become depends on how you deal with the problems you encounter.”

From this point of view, when we encounter similar difficulties in our lives, whether we will give up because of them, or whether we will try to overcome them and reach a better situation than we are now, depends on our decisions.

People tend to think of their own problems as the biggest and worst. A pimple on their cheek is more interesting and stressful than a person who has slipped and cut their knee in front of them. When you think of your own problems as the most annoying and difficult to solve, I want you to remember that there are people around you who are facing worse situations and difficulties every day than we are. When you feel that your voice is too bad to hear and when you are feeling down, there are many people in the world who are born speechless. If you are feeling sad because your eyes are not beautiful, remember that there are many people in the world who are facing darkness every day because they are blind. If you are feeling weak because your economy is not good, or you are feeling weak because you cannot eat good food, imagine the lives of people on the streets who are hungry all day long because they are not sure if they will even have a meal. In fact, there are many worse situations in the world than us. Every time we feel down, imagine those who are living in a life that is even more difficult than the one we are facing. Difficulties are something to be faced with. It is not something to be sad and depressed about. What matters is how we face those difficulties.

Once upon a time, a donkey accidentally fell into a deep well. His owner tried to pull him out, but the well kept him in.

Because it was old and damaged, and because his donkey was old, he finally decided to kill it in the well because it was too difficult to save it. So he asked some villagers for help and they lowered some earth into the well. At first, the donkey screamed loudly because the earth had fallen on it. After a while, it stopped screaming and became silent. When the owner looked down into the well, he saw the donkey shaking off the earth that had fallen on it and standing on the fallen earth. Then, the donkey shook off the earth from above, stood on the earth, and finally slowly reached the top of the well, and the donkey escaped with his life.

Like the donkey in that story, when we encounter difficulties in our lives, rather than whining and crying for help, we should think about how we will cope with and overcome our difficulties and move forward.

Difficulties can happen to everyone. There is no need to be depressed and complain about difficulties and problems. Difficulties are meant to be faced and overcome. How we face and react to these difficulties, how we face and overcome them, determines the course of our lives.

Daily Eleven, 1-Nov-2016.