Surviving Brokenness: How overcome being broke and poor

Surviving Brokenness: How to Turn Being Broke into Strength

Living paycheck to paycheck is stressful, humiliating, and exhausting. Bills pile up, debts loom, and financial uncertainty feels like modern society’s version of torture. But it’s not just money that drains us—being broke breeds jealousy, envy, anger, anxiety, fear, and the most corrosive emotion of all: worry. Poverty doesn’t just impact your bank account—it tests your spirit.

Survival Nature

When you’re broke, your focus shifts your mind into a nature of survival. In this nature, your feelings and emotions take less of a priority, and you spend your focus and time in discomfort to maintain your well-being and quality of life. But this environment has a powerful enemy lurking beneath its depths called pride.

Pride is sealed and controlled through comfort and security, usually through the amount of money you make and the quality of life. When this seal is broken, pride escapes from the depths to wreak havoc on your mindstate, spreading negative thoughts, worry, and fear. With pride, you resist change and live in delusion, trying everything possible to escape your reality. Being in survival mode means you’re fighting with reality and your pride in order to survive the day.

To defeat pride and confront reality in this situation, rational thinking is your greatest weapon. By focusing on reason, you can make decisions that protect your well-being and keep you moving forward, even in difficult circumstances. Ask yourself: What’s the next step I can take to survive, adapt, and grow? Each rational choice chips away at the fear, doubt, and negativity that pride can create, allowing you to turn struggle into progress and build strength from your experiences.

Fight with your Egos

The hardest part about being broke is the damage it can do to our egos. Our egos act as protectors of our inner child, but being poor can feel like a boss constantly attacking and breaking them. Without our ego shielding our soul, we can feel like scared children—running from problems and shutting down when faced with discomfort.If you’re in a broke situation, the best thing you can do is not let your character change. In fact, you should focus your free time on strengthening your ego so you become more resilient to negative events.

• Rationality: Make decisions and take actions that improve your well-being and quality of life.

• Wisdom: Learn skills that help you survive and thrive.

• Grit: Get comfortable with discomfort; cut unnecessary spending and live frugally.

• Confidence: Keep your head high and don’t let your thoughts or situation diminish your charisma.

• Joy: Find happiness in the things you have and in free activities you can enjoy.

When you eventually stop being broke, you’ll gain the power of resilience, experience, and perspective that no paycheck can buy.

Build your Value

Being broke reminds us that most jobs today are low-paying, unreliable, and replaceable—sometimes by AI or robots. Companies don’t act out of malice; they act out of efficiency. That’s why it’s crucial to develop human-centered skills that machines can’t replicate: teaching, entertainment, design, trades, hospitality, survival skills, and creative crafts.

Ask yourself: if society collapsed tomorrow, what value could you offer to help yourself and others survive? High-paying careers like coding, law, accounting, or real estate might vanish or become automated. But human connection, creativity, and essential skills will always matter. Invest in passions that build real value—they cost little but make you irreplaceable.

B.R.O.K.E.

If you’re like me and deal with the struggles of ADHD, you know how hard it can be to face challenges that push us out of our comfort zone. We often procrastinate or live in a delusion, hoping problems will magically disappear. One day turns into the next, the next becomes a week, and a week can turn into a month. Sometimes, this works—temporarily—but eventually, the problem grows stronger, morphing into a looming obstacle of fear and dread that we can no longer ignore. From paying bills and making doctor appointments to completing projects or even opening mail, we turn simple tasks into monsters of anxiety.

Instead of crashing out and feeling like your life is over when emergencies or hardships arise, use the acronym BROKE as a guide to survive, adapt, and overcome.

B

Build:

Resilience and strength

Change your perspective: hardship is temporary, and you're not going to die from it. It’s a challenge with the reward of resilience and strength.

R

Rationality:

logic and reason

Resist desires and emotions, and base your decisions on surviving this situation and your well-being.

O

Optimize

Time Management

Optimize your time with productivity and Organization

K

KARMA

situational awareness

Be aware of the energies in your environment and the influence they may have on your actions

E

Evade

Distractions and negative thoughts

Escape from distractions and negative thoughts.

Escape the Web of Worry

Being in debt and broke traps you in a negative mind state of worry. Like an insect caught in a web, worry is the spider slowly wrapping you up, immobilizing you from taking action and escaping. The more you focus on late bills or your failures, the more time you waste and the more hope you lose.

Escape your Negative thoughts and mindstate by Breathing

To prevent being trapped by negative thoughts, take a deep breath and hold it for 10 seconds. Doing so allows you to clear your mind, release negativity, and return to the present moment.

Your reality is that you are not going to die, and there is still a lot of living to do.

Being broke is more than just a financial struggle—it’s a test of resilience, character, and mental strength. While money can come and go, your ego, rationality, and the skills you build remain with you. By protecting your ego, acting with reason, learning valuable skills, and finding joy in simple things, you can turn hardship into growth. Remember: this situation is temporary, but the strength, wisdom, and resilience you develop will last a lifetime