“Go finish something or start something or just make something happen!” 

~ Lawrence Namale

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I opened my eyes at 5:30 am, fully awake. I set out a heavy groan. I was broke, did not have enough money to buy food for my kids, let alone to pay school fees for them. I had worked on several projects and every client of mine had failed to pay up. I was broke, angry and effectively in a major slump.

The feeling inside of me was mixed with anger, shame, contrition, and helplessness. My body felt as dense in weight as lead and I never wanted to get out of bed. There was no inspiration whatsoever to face the day.

I am writing this because of the greatest danger that a moment like this poses to a visionary. We might experience such moments of a slump, brokenness, and lack of inspiration from time to time. The danger is what our silent interpretations will render to us. Internally, there is a voice that is judging you and labeling you. That voice will call you names such as loser, useless, worthless poor and so on.

The Danger

The biggest effect on you however will be on your feelings. Chances are that:

• You will start feeling poor
• You will start feeling worthless (the evidence is unquestionable momentarily)
• You will start feeling insignificant
• You will start feeling like you do not matter

When Thoughts Become Feelings and Things

The greatest mistake that I could have done that particular day was to accept the invitation of my heavy heart to stay in the house and turn on my bed like a door on its hinges. I would have hastened the process of feeling worthless, and chances are that I would have felt and become worthless that day.

But in a split second, I encouraged myself to get out of bed, “go finish something or start something, or just make something happen”. I promised myself that day that I would not dress down…in fact I promised myself that I would dress up as if I was someone important. That particular week I  had been dressing casually, but this day, I decided to go official, as if I was a CEO of some sorts. And Indeed I am, as we shall see later on in my book, Self Executive Officer.

 

And as I did, my day started falling right into place. That is how I was able to overcome that momentary slump that could have eaten away on my contribution on earth.

The following are the 6 things you can do whenever you find yourself in that situation. You could either do all of them or just one of them or several of them. Believe me, it will be worth your while.

1. Do something.

Do not Indulge the ‘density’. The only greatest antidote for feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem is insightful activity. In my case, I had to get out of bed. No, there was no motivation to do it, but I pulled myself out slowly. I realized as the day progressed, motivation caught up with me in spurts.

This means that the feeling of density was still there trying to weigh me down, but I decided who the master would be: myself. I decided I would not be led by my feelings. I decided to act despite them. If I had not, you wouldn’t be reading this article!

2. Give something:

Be humane. Moments such as these make you feel like you cannot contribute. That morning, I bought some snack for breakfast from a local vendor. Then instinctively, I thanked the vendor from my heart. As I did that, some weight was lifted off my chest and my back. I do not know the mechanics in the spirit of what happened, but that is the moment I realized that I had to write this article. I have realized that giving is a potent force to counter feelings of worthlessness. Again, the illusion that you are under when going through will tell you that you do not have anything to give. That morning, I had gratitude and as I gave it, you could have seen my self-worth skyrocketing in a flash!

“Giving is a potent force to counter feelings of worthlessness”.

3. Volunteer Something:

As all this was happening, a friend of mine reached out and invited me to go inspire some kids in school. Here I was feeling useless, but the moment I decided to get out of bed, things started organizing themselves. If I had stayed in bed, I would not have taken up this opportunity. I talked to the kids on a simple subject titled, “Whatever you do, give it 100% unless you are donating blood”. And that day, I gave 100% to that talk. As I did, there was no time to dwell on my sorry state of affairs. I was building something positive in my psyche instead of indulging in a pity party that would have cemented my feelings of despondency. And oh, by the way, I also met a prospective client during that talk!

4. Finish Something:

I have already talked about this in great length here. There is a sense of accomplishment that comes to you when you target to finish something. Finishing a task beautifies the future and creates hope. It also builds up your self-esteem because you have just sent signals to your mind that you are creative, and you have brought something to life that can serve others. All humanity lives for such moments. Finish something, whatever it is: Jogging your circuit, complementing your wife (If you haven’t for many days), an article (like I am doing with this one), reading a book chapter, clearing your mails, and so on. Just finish something.

“Finishing a task beautifies the future and creates hope”.

5. Tune in Your Favorite Inspiration:

Revert back to your favorite inspirational songs. Ease off Your Mind. Acknowledge the gravity of the situation and ease off. If the project is not pulling together, keep your mind out of it for a while. Find something totally different from your current pursuits and get your mind on it. Go out and play with kids, laugh with them, watch with them their cartoons, create shapes and color with them, build them toys, watch a good inspirational movie and so on. Just get your mind off of the trouble at the moment.

6. Talk To People:

Find people and talk to them. If you can get a group of people who are talking about how to made a difference in one area of life or another, it would be great. This makes your brains creative and ‘projective’ to the future, thereby creating an aura and atmosphere of hope. Staying alone with a zipped mouth as I have said before is one of the greatest fodders of shrinking and playing in the hands of fear. Do not be a loner!

Epilogue

On the contrary, if you do not engage in any of these 6 because “None of them will bring me money today”, you will obviously be magnifying your feelings of worthlessness, self-pity, brokenness, and despondency. I will bet that you will be isolated and if you had company at home, you will be one of the lousiest company someone can have that day.

Have a glorious day, won’t you?