Clement Chee

My friend told me about a successful businessman was sharing about his own success story and he came out with some words that encouraged my friend a lot. He said that a man’s strength is not about whether or not he is good looking, but it is about how much responsibilities he can carry on his shoulders.

How true! The more you responsible you carry, the more mature and successful you will become. If you can excel not only in the area of your work, but also your marriage, relationships with people, finances, health and family, you can be sure that you are one wise and responsible man.

However, there are certain things in life you simply can never carry them with you forever. I call them the baggages of life and the following are some of the examples.

1. THE BAGGAGE OF WORRY AND ANXIETY. According to research, 40% of a person’s mind focuses on things will never happen, 30% dedicated to things about the past that cannot be changed, 12% to things about criticism by others, 10% to health and only 8% to the real problems they face.

I believe we have worries in lives. Although our worries may be different, each and everyone of us has worries in our lives. Many worry about the future and some even think about the past that they can do nothing about them. What we should really be focusing on is the real problems we are facing at the present stage.

There is a saying that goes like this. Worries are like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do but it is bringing you to nowhere. Even though it brings you no where, it will definitely eat up a lot of your energy. Have you ever experienced sleepless nights simply because you worry too much? Have you ever had butterfly in your stomach simply because you are worried about someone or something?

Worries are unavoidable in lives but we can definitely learn how to deal with them. I truly think worries come from the problems we are currently facing. Like when we do not have enough money to eat or when your customer might not buy your proposal, you are facing a real challenge in life.

One of the ways you can deal with your problem is to solve the problems one by one. Deal with it one at a time so that you can be so focused in solving your problem at any particular point of time. When you do not have enough money to eat, then you might want to go get a job. When your prospect is not buying to your proposed idea, you might want to do more cold calls and meet more prospects in order to get more sales.

Have you ever heard the saying that goes, “Don’t worry, be happy?”. I think there is one saying that works more effectively than this. Don’t worry, do something about it.

2. THE BAGGAGE OF DISAPPOINTMENTS. If you have been disappointed by the people around you, you are not alone. Whether you are rich or poor, you will have disappointments. In fact, successful people experienced more disappointments than any other ordinary people. The higher you climb, the greater the battle you will have to fight. The greater the battle, when you lose, you will be even more disappointed.

Again, disappointments are not wrong in life. If you are angry because somebody talked bad behind you, it is extremely normal. When you make a lost in a business deal, you have every right to be disappointed.

Being disappointed or feeling defeated is a temporary condition but giving up is what makes it permanent. What makes successful people so successful is their persistence to keep going. When they are defeated, they get up and keep going until they finish the race.

3. THE BAGGAGE OF OFFENSES. It is impossible not to have offenses in life and this usually lead to anger in a person. According to research, 70% of the world population is angry with something. Are you angry with anything today?

Learning to manage anger is not something easy for me. Based on my experience, communicating your purpose and talk over the problem with the intended person usually works for me. I will ask what is he pissed off about me and if we can talk over it. You will be amazed with what that kind of step of faith will bring.

4. THE BAGGAGE OF FEAR. FEAR is an acronym in English language for False Evidence Appearing Real. Fearfulness is something that has gone deep into our spirit. If we do not handle it well, it will paralyze us from doing a lot of things.

How often you do feel fearful when you want to try out something new? Like starting up a business, entering into a new relationship, singing in front of a big crowd, and saying ‘I love you’ to your parents? This is normal because when you are not certain about what’s ahead.

However, we need to know one thing. Those who have successfully made it to the top are those who are willing to take risk in their lives. To risk, simply means to do something new. I believe the more you step into the new era in your life, the more successful you will become in conquering fear.

Those were the baggages of life you need to get rid of. Worry, anxiety, disappointments, offences and fear are simply not avoidable in life. Successful people do experience and carry the same baggages but the difference comes in the way they handle them.

Now that you understand this better, I hope this blog post has helped you to understand more about yourself so that you know how to deal with them.