The Baggage
Treat yourself as you treat a friend.
You’re sitting with a friend as they lay out their life problems. You think to yourself how stupid or this is not a good idea. Regardless, you still give advice. It’s clear to you what your friend must do!
So clear in fact you can see right through it. As a friend you are being objective to the situation, meaning taking you away from the situation. However, when you deal with your own challenges you don’t have the same affect. When you deal with your life you become very subjective by nature. Which is why it’s so much easier to give someone else advice.
This is called the baggage.
You might have in the past dealt with the same situation as your friend, are currently or might in the future. Yet, with your friend you can remove you — the subjective part— from the advice.
By taking your situation and looking at is as if your friend were going through it is a great approach to solving your problem. Removing you and the baggage from the issue at hand. Think of all the options you can come up with. The answer is clear to you on their problem or life. However, on your own, you feel lost. As if you are the only one to experience this. Snap out of it. Someone has it worse. Someone else is going through the same thing you are now. Stop thinking about you and you can find the solution you need. There is no space or time for pity, blame or self-shaming. You have a problem that needs solving.
This takes practice and time for you to practice. Compared to the alternative, its best to strengthen this part of ourselves. The introspection—looking inward— and tossing the baggage out
Treat yourself as you treat a friend. Give yourself obvious solutions.
Thought Provoking Question 1 : What can you gain by looking at your challenge the way you look at a friends challenge?
Dan Roman is a Husband, Father, and writer that releases a daily blog. A quick read on sharing wisdom and asking though-provoking questions.
What are your thoughts on this piece? Comment below…
