Desperation: What It Can Do to You

Desperation: what it can do to you.

At one point in time we get into situations where things don’t work in our favour as we would like it. At that time too we realise that we are getting late or we are loosing something we treasure. At this moment the future becomes very bleak and we feel we want to do something immediately to change the situation. But what we should actually do is also not clear to us. Now that is desperation. Sometimes it is about life and death. Other times it is about survival. Whatever the case desperation is the same. But the question is should we be desperate at all?

Being desperate is a choice. Everybody faces challenges in life. But the way we react to these challenges determines the effect that this challenge will have on us. When you panic before a strange dog it will back at you. But if you remain study it sees no threat in you and will not attack. So are many wild animals. Being desperate can lead to negative consequences.

When you are desperate you will fail to analyse the situation properly. This means you draw the wrong conclusions, leading to wrong decisions. Wrong decisions will lead to wrong actions which will in turn generate undesirable consequences. Check this example. Supposing you are on top of a tree and realise that there is a snake up with you. Desperation might make you jump down and you might get hurt in the process. But you could find a way of getting down without being bitten. You could even cut the branch on which the snake is, so the snake falls and not you.

Desperation makes you get less than you deserve. The impaired judgment that comes due to being desperate will make you accept terms that in the end are not in your best interest. Many people have given away valuable properties and investments for paltry sums of money just because at a point in time the desperately needed money. Some people because they desperately needed to marry entered into certain marriages that don’t work.

Desperation makes you vulnerable. People will take advantage of you when they realise that you are desperate. One of such cases is the story of Essau in the Bible. He was so desperately hungry that he fails to listen well to the conditions his brother Jacob attached to the bowl of broth he wanted. At the end he wept bitterly for it. He lost his birthright. Jacob who was for a long time (since their birth) looking for an opportunity to take the birthright saw his brother desperate, and caught him in his trap. Don’t allow yourself to be trapped like that by being desperate.

I said earlier that desperation is a choice. It all depends on you. Don’t choose it when you see yourself cornered. Train yourself to maintain your presence of mind in such situations. You have more to loose by being desperate. The choice is yours.