CHAPTER 23
FACE YOUR PHASE
You will remember vividly that time when you were little and the teacher at school threw the question “what do you want to be in the future?” at you. You replied with “I want to be ……..” You have gone through that time of answering such questions to becoming the answer that you had offered back then. For some, life managed to push them away from what they had assumed was their right answer back then.
Life is in phases. A phase is a stage or chapter of life. That time when you were little was a phase. You could only think and want to be. Beyond mere words, there was nothing more that could have created the image of what the future entailed. Though the period consisted of its challenges, it was challenges within your capacity.
We often prayed for challenges to get off our back that time when we were little and we had huge success getting them off but you might have observed that each challenge that got off our backs opened a door to even more challenges.
Every phase carries its set of challenges. The close of a challenge welcomes us to the opening of another phase and another challenge. You may remember that you anticipated getting off the phase of primary school into high school. It was so interesting a new phase that you wanted to jump in almost immediately without even getting through the immediate challenge of finishing primary school. There was always the anticipation and you prayed the next day was the day you jumped into high school but you failed to acknowledge the price that is required to get through the challenge.
There is a rush to get over towards something new every time. We want to be ahead faster than our capacity to challenge in the new phase we are yearning for. We naturally have that tendency to hurry along in the race of life but then we observe each point on the race is a mountain that has to be surmounted, a test that has to be resolved. We observe that the race is sectionalized, each section with its own set of rules, rules that guide all the affairs of that section.
Where you are now is a phase of your life. It may be challenging or easy going but it’s just a phase. A phase can offer just about anything and everything. Sometimes we envy some other person because we aren’t at the same position as they are. We wish we have the car, the home, the family or the job of the man next door. Sadly though, we are wrong to think that way.
It’s good to desire something good not because a friend has it but because it is good. However if you don’t have it, acknowledge too that once upon a time, that friend that has what he has now never had. He got through the same phase as you have to go through, faced the challenges and headed out successfully. You can learn how he got off his phase and maybe follow his steps too.
The rush life has caused many to take the wrong decisions about their lives because they want to break away from the challenging phase they are in. a better phase may be increasingly enticing especially when one looks at the characteristics of the life one could live. Those who however get there must sacrifice.
The easy route to a better phase may pay faster but has deadly repercussions. The easy route may involve bribing, robbery, cheating, lying, cultism etc. yes, it may seem to get you the better lifestyle faster, but the result can be damning.
If you are facing a challenging phase, you’d be better off learning from the challenges of the phase than jumping off the challenges through some short route. Every challenge comes with something to learn, virtues to imbibe that will make you a better person than you were before the challenge. Face the challenges that rise from your phase with all the energy that it requires.
Those you think are doing better and which you desire to be like also have challenges that they have to challenge within their phase. They got through similar challenges like yours when they were in your phase and have qualified for the quality of life of their phase and the new set of challenges which you may not notice because you aren’t in their phase.
Whatever phase you may be in, just face it.