…Introspection Time with JBM
It’s amazing how life is surrounded by both achievements and deflations. When you feel deflated due to certain situations you encounter, they often send feelings of discouragements and regrets. Normally you cannot help but to feel a sense of loss and retrogression.
To be deflated according to Macmillan Dictionary could mean feeling less confident and happy due to some occurrence in one’s life.
This article is meant to help us reflect on some of the deflating moments in our lives and a reminder that they are part of life that occur for a reason.
Years ago, when I qualified to grade ten back in Luanshya Town, my bedroom was gutted by fire. All the uniforms and books my mum struggled to purchase for me were lost in that inferno. Being a single orphan then, wallowing in abject poverty due to property grabbing which was common at the time, the pain and reality of losing my only hope of making life sensible was unbearable.
I felt extremely deflated, with little hope of making it in life, because I knew I had no one to buy another set of uniforms. Quitting to live on seemed the easiest route for me.
Have you ever experienced any deflating moment in your business, academic, family and other part of life before? Have you ever been at a point where ending it all seemed to be the only option workable? If so, that makes the two of us!
It can even be you failing an exam or a situation where you lose an opportunity to excel or progress in life. More often than not you tend to be filled with regrets and self-blame. There could be uncountable number of situations where you have missed the opportunity that showed itself so clearly before you and it still hurts.
However, based on my personal introspection of life, the deflating moments can actually be defining moments that anchor your life together.
Deflating moments have the potential to sharpen your focus and add to your growth in whatever area.
It is those deflating moments that offer you life’s lessons that can only be learnt and internalised by passing through them – never to be the same again.
Future regrets are minimised or abetted against depending on what lesson was extracted. Successful businesses and people have been said to be built on a series of hidden pillars of deflation.
One of Robin Sharma’s quotes states: “As you grow more, you see more…..As you know more, you achieve more…’’ This means your deflating moments can be your indirect promotion to another level of understanding and attraction of better opportunities aligned for you by the Almighty God.
Whatever fears you face during the deflating moment, remember that they can be faced with faith. Dare to take the first step and move on, even though the whole staircase cannot be seen.
You will be surprised by the universal principle of progression that works for you regardless of your religious standpoint. As you face those deflating life’s moments, be reminded that God will always work out situations for you even when it feels like He is not concerned. Remember that He is concerned about every little detail of your life and He knows best.
That the Almighty will unveil the best opportunity and the best arrangement for you. He alone turns situations to work out for your good. What then is your attitude towards those deflating moments?
For the next version of Introspection Time with JBM, check Kalemba every Wednesday.
Author: Joan Beulah Mute (JBM) is a lecturer in Research Methods, Sociology and Law and Ethics in Public Health at the University of Lusaka.
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