Day: March 6, 2019

Short term discomfort

~ osasuoviawe

Short term discomfort must never be extended to long term living.

If a short term discomfort becomes long term, leave it. Stop it. Solve it. Starve it. The discomfort was and is not the goal.

Let us use exercise, debt and learning to explain.

Exercise:

Let’s say you exercise to proactively stay healthy. When you start to exercise, your muscles feel sore (short term discomfort), but as you consistently exercise, your muscles adjust and you gain both muscle strength and health (long term living).

However, if the muscle in your back or thigh continue feeling sore (discomforting) for longer, prompting you to start taking pain killers, please stop, and seek help. Your short term discomfort has extended into long term living, yet you do not have the health you sought.

The discomfort is expected, but you must know when it should end and when long term living continues to feed off the short term discomfort.

Debt:

You might need to take a loan to meet a pressing need you were unprepared for. You go through the short term discomfort of principal and interest repayments. Just as you’re completing your repayment, you tell yourself that the loan is the reason for your accelerated growth. The obligation of a loan keeps you focused. So you jump into bigger debt for bigger growth and bigger focus.

You have extended debt (short term discomfort) to a way of life (long term living). Please stop, not all experiences in life are required before you learn.

If you’re not able to manage the freedom that comes with being debt-free, you will be buried with the compounding interests that come with debt.

Remember, the house always wins.

Learning:

When you start learning anything new, there is the discomfort of incompetence that follows. As you study, practice and express, you learn.

If your incompetence persists in time, pushing you to start unorthodox ways demonstrating competence (for example, cheating in a test or getting someone else to do the work you present), please stop, and find another area to learn. Your sustained incompetence might be a pointer that this is not for you, thus reducing your alternatives. Reducing your alternatives actually improves your alternatives.

Continuing in incompetence (short term discomfort) and applying smoke and mirrors to demostrate competence (long term living), limits rather than promotes you.

Short term discomfort must never be extended to long term living.

If a short term discomfort becomes long term, leave it. Stop it. Solve it. Starve it. The discomfort was and is not the goal.

– Osasu Oviawe

Reward

~ osasuoviawe

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

“Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them; for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.
“Thus, when you give alms, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
“And when you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by men but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Homily:

What rewards do you seek? External, internal or both?

You get the reward you seek. The reward you believe in.

It starts with the scorecards you keep and monitor – internal or external.

External rewards are short term, energy consuming and based on an external scorecard. This is what I am.

Internal rewards are long term, self-sustaining and based on an internal scorecard. This is who I am.

You can also have both, either starting with an external scorecard and gaining some internal rewards, or starting with an internal scorecard and gaining some external rewards.

When you get internal rewards from an external scorecard, you try to use a lot of energy to support a self-sustaining system, ultimately destroying it.

When you get external rewards from an internal scorecard, you starve an energy demanding system, ultimately shrinking it.

The passage shows the conflict between our desires and our deeds.

We desire God’s reward (internal reward), but court the world’s reward (external reward). Therein lies the root of unhappiness.