The Top 3 Best Ways to Suffer in Life.
In my last medium post, ‘Why you should write your biography’, I asked my readers how they believe their lives have been so far. Tragedy or comedy. Most people considered their lives thus far as ‘Tragedy.’
This was baffling to me for two reasons because:
- Most of my readers are in their 20s, and rumour has it that your 20s are supposed to be the best years of your life.
- Everyone looks like they are having a ball on social media.
This got me wondering, what is really going on?
A few years ago, while studying life, I came across a striking assertion that philosophers and religious people have held for centuries. It stated That life is ‘suffering’. Suffering is punctuated with little bouts of happiness here and there.
This sounded like a very pessimistic view of life, but as you grow older, you find that no matter how much you get done the day before, your ‘To-do’ list is empty the next day. This indicates to me that although suffering sounds like a negative word, life is truly one big game of problem-solving.
While there are many ways to suffer in life, tragedy has a hierarchy.
THE BIG THREE TRAGEDIES
Renowned life coach Jim Rohn gives the parameters to measure a tragic life. He stated that for a life to be truly tragic, there are three things a person needs to be:
- Broke
- Stupid &
- Sick
Broke
Being broke is common to most people at some point in their lives. Although it manifests as a lack of money, being broke is the inability to identify and trade with the values that you have. It usually begins in the mind before manifesting in reality.
There are also levels of being broke. Ranging from running out of allowance or salary to an inability to provide basic necessities for one’s family. Being broke is especially hard for people because many of life’s problems can be solved with money.
The good thing is that one can find a way out of this tragedy with the right amount of strategy and knowledge. Like a wise man once said, to escape being broke, you need to either know how to sell or beg.
Stupid
Stupidity is simply a lack of know-how. Many people don’t know how to speak, think, save or build relationships, and this lack of know-how affects them in all aspects of their lives.
Contrary to what you think, stupidity is a more prevalent tragedy in modern society than any other. The problem with stupidity is that it is a highly magnetic tragedy. It attracts all other tragedies.
Stupidity is also great at disguising; this is why most stupid cannot self-diagnose. When paired with pride, stupidity becomes deadly because nothing is worse than a proud stupid person. A stupid person would chart a course for penury, loneliness, and sickness, without even knowing.
Sickness
Sickness is the most insidious of all tragedies because it is unpredictable, ruthless and hard to conceptualize. Sickness may range from a slight fever to an assortment of terminal illnesses. No matter how wealthy or wise a person is, they are not exempt from sickness.
The most important factor in your life’s adventure is your health because wealth, love and power do not matter without sound health. You will know that if you have ever been ill.
While sickness can result from stupidity or poverty, wealth and wisdom can minimize the advent of sickness.
There are three reasons why death doesn’t qualify as a top tragedy. First of all, death hurts the living more than the dead. Secondly, nothing is worse than being broke, stupid and sick but unable to die.
IS YOUR LIFE TRULY A TRAGEDY?
Chances are that at some point in your life, you have gone through one of these tragedies. You may have even gone through two simultaneously, but only someone who has spent most of their lives experiencing all three can truly describe their lives as tragic. If you have spent most of your time alive without these tragedies, your life is better than a comedy. You qualify as privileged.
If you think otherwise, you have either been comparing yourself to others, or you have been very ungrateful. We live in the most peaceful, wealthy and food-abundant era in human history.
THE WAY OUT
The solutions to these tragedies are simple yet hard. Here are a few more practical steps to add to gratitude.
If you are broke, offer value.
Value is what you bring to the marketplace that others can exchange for money. Everyone on earth has something that they can offer to legally lift themselves out of poverty. Identify what that is for you and start offering it to the right people. If you do this well enough, you will escape poverty forever.
If you’re stupid, seek wisdom.
The first step is to accept your stupidity, then seek help. Secondly, seek knowledge by asking the right people the right questions and reading books. Hopefully, somewhere down the line, wisdom finds you.
If you’re sick, find God.
Nothing can protect you from the claws of sickness than a higher power. You can do many things by exercise and diet that could reduce your chances of falling ill, but you need something beyond yourself to tackle the unpredictability of sickness. If you do, you increase your chance of survival when sickness comes knocking. I recommend Jesus.
In conclusion, if you are going through any of the three tragedies of life, I hope you rise above it. And if you’re not, there are not many people like you; this makes your life a comedy. Live as such.
Live with gratitude.
