Probing our Problems (Part 2)




During my undergraduate years, I had a humorous yet more realistic way of measuring a person’s financial worth. When you receive an amount of money (whether your wages or allowances), you tend to spend lavishly out of excitement until you reach a certain amount and become careful about your spending. That amount that gets you conscious and cautious is the real amount that you can manage and it defines your financial worth.

No matter how much you earn or receive as a gift, you would always reduce it to the amount that you are worth. Although your bank account is infinitely elastic to accommodate any amount of money, the amount that you are worth is the only amount that can comfortably rest in your mind’s account.

Based on this metric, my financial worth was usually around N1,000 early in my school days. Now, I have grown. But ponder it a little and consider how much you are truly worth.

Remember the story of my counselee’s dilemma in my poat last week? She was not so much hurt by her lack of money as she was by her spending habit. That is why I mentioned that our mindsets and habits are the real sources of our hurts and/or healing as they set our default response to challenges.

Indiscipline, not saving, inadequate planning or not planning at all, procrastination, indulgence, greed, pride, worrying, etc. These habits undermine our potentials, inhibit our growth, and limit our progress. As we remain trapped in these webs woven by our poor choices and behaviours, we feel that the symptoms of our problems will never go away. This illusion of perpetuality hurts us badly.

There is another illusion that strikes us terribly: the illusion of exclusivity. This usually beclouds our vision when we make our home in the zone of self-pity. “My problem is one of a kind. No one will understand me.” But nothing is farther from the truth because there is no new problem under the sun. Our problems are just uniquely customized for us. Their essence is the s0ame as what many others have and are still experiencing. As far as problems are concerned, we are never alone!

There are even other veils that prevent us from seeing our problems clearly like the veil of mediocrity – “It’s okay like this. No need to change it.” – and the veil of fatality “What’s gonna be, gonna be.” All of these veils cast upon our minds rob us of our proactivity and creativity and they must be taken away if we must make a major move to solve our problems.

Unfortunately, many people hold on to these veils for so long and are stuck in a single problem for donkey's years. It is even interesting to know that the most important miracle that we usually need and get in the face of prolonged problems is that of renewal of vision. This is what the encouraging presence of a companion or added financial resources does for us: they help us see possibilities in our problems. Such possibilities can be seen without those elements if only we would submit our mindsets for re-orientation. Again, that is the real miracle we need!

In the case of our habits, we need discipline to solve our problems and grow through them. “Discipline is the basic set of tools we require to solve life’s problems,” wrote M. Scott Peck. “Without discipline, we can solve nothing. With only some discipline we can solve only some problems. With total discipline, we can solve all problems.”

Next week, I will introduce you to four basic techniques of disciplines Dr. Peck observed for solving our problems. You will find them really amazing!

However, as you anticipate the sequel, let me leave you with a reminder that you should take as a confession to reconstruct your mindset.

“My problems are not perpetual, they are only temporal.”

“My problems are not exclusive, they are only personal.”

“My problems are not just meant to be, they are meant to be solved.”

“My problems are not just problems, they are opportunities to call forth my potentials, birth solutions that the world desperately needs, and inspire many others to do as I have done.”

“My problems will not remain problems; with discipline, I will change my habits and solve all of my problems.”

To your greatness,

Bright Ukwenga
The Chief Scribe

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