Confronting Difficulties

Two months ago, I met a 17 year-old-boy who is an inspiration to me.

The boy's father died about two years ago. The surviving members of the family - wife and 2 children (including the boy) - did not inherit much from the deceased. His mother was a housewife and, until recently, she was jobless.

Debts continued to mount and the family's situation went from bad to worse. A year later, at 16, the boy had to come to terms with reality and accept responsibility of taking the lead in his family.

He now works part-time. He also helped his mother find a job. With the help of community leaders, he worked out a comfortable debt repayment plan with the family's creditors. He now looks after his younger brother, and makes constructive contributions to the community.

The boy is an ordinary human being. Even though he is not well-educated, he has shown an extraordinary potential in the things he has achieved.

He would put me to shame when I was 17, as I am sure he would many others.

The boy's experience has 2 key lessons:

1. When faced with difficult problems, we can do 2 things: ignore it or take responsibility. Taking responsibilty can help reduce the difficulty. If you ignore the problem, it will only get worse.

2. In order to achieve difficult things, we must have a strong reason to do achieve such things. Thus, if you have a difficult objective, find a strong reason to achieve that objective. Sometimes, the reason is inevitably thrust upon you; in such a situation, we should consciously make the reason our strength rather than a weakness.

Happiness,
Dharmendra Yadav