George Eliot famously asked: “What do we live for if not to make the world less difficult for each other?”

At some point in your life, you’ve seen someone carrying a heavy burden. And you’ve had the chance to make it lighter.

There’s always the temptation to live from a selfish, self-centred place. But it’s in giving of ourselves that we find our greatest sense of meaning. Our purpose, in part, is to help others breathe easier. To be the reason someone smiles. To be the reason someone celebrates. Never the reason someone cries.

Eliot was not asking us to be heroes. She was asking us to be human. To be compassionate. To lift burdens. And if you can’t help your neighbour, then at least do not add to their weight.

Life gains meaning when we reduce suffering for others. The person next to you in trotro, in queue, in church may be fighting battles you nothing about. Your kind word may heal a broken-heart. Your small deed may change a life. When you water your neighbour’s life, your own is watered too.

Eliot’s World, Our World
Eliot wrote those words during Victorian England’s industrial hardship. She saw poverty and inequality, and she chose empathy as resistance.

More than 150 years later, her question is urgent for Ghana.

Life has never been easy, but today it feels heavier. The economy is strained. The cost of food, transport, rent, and medical bills keeps rising. Our systems are buckling: long hospital queues, rising school fees, unemployment, “protocol,” corruption, nepotism, and moral decay.

Socially we are fraying. Road rage. Cyber fraud. The ‘ÿenkyere obi’ attitude.

And there is a widening gulf between the haves and the have-nots. Public office, which should be a call to service, has become for some an opportunity to amass wealth. While the ordinary Ghanaian is told to tighten their belt, some in power are loosening theirs. As I wrote before: leadership is measured not by the power you hold, but by the weight you lift from others.

The Cost of Making Life More Difficult

When we ignore Eliot’s standard the cost is real.

Mistrust Grows: Between government and governed. People lose faith in institutions.

Hopelessness Spreads: Stress, depression, and migration become escape routes.

We lose our humanity: “Survival of the fittest” replaces Ï am because we are.” We become a nation of people surviving, not thriving.

The Way Forward: Making Life Less Difficult

We must rediscover our humanity. And it starts with daily choices.

Government policies must have a human face. Democracy is meaningless if only a few benefit while the masses wallow in poverty. Cut bureaucracy. Create a level playing field. Public office must be guided by probity, accountability, and service, not self-interest.

In communities, we should revive what has always held us together: nnoboa, susu, communal labour, festivals. Check on the window. Mentor the youth. Be your brother’s keeper.

In workplaces, bosses should mentor, not exploit. Colleagues should cover for each other. Dignity must matter more than profit.

Whether online or in public, choose words that heal, not harm. Fight misinformation. Treat people the way you want to be treated. Give up your seat. Pay someone’s trotro fare. Feed the hungry. Teach for free. Visit the sick. Your kindness may be the only light in someone’s darkness.

Conclusion
George Eliot asked the question that should haunt and guide us: “What do we live for if not to make the world less difficult for each other?” We may not change the whole world. But we can change someone’s world today.

So I ask you, and I ask myself: What difficulty did I make lighter today? And what will I do tomorrow?

Governance is about helping people thrive. And a nation is easier to build when life is less difficult for its people.

Quotes

1. Ä nation prospers not when we compete to be first, but when we compete to ease each other’s burdens.”- Abundant Robert K. AWOLUGUTU
2. “Leadership is measured not by the power you hold, but by the weight you lift from others.”- Abundant Robert K. AWOLUGUTU
3. “The true test of kinsmen is not how we celebrate together, but how we suffer less together.”- Abundant Robert K. AWOLUGUTU

Be a world changer, be a force for good.

AWOLUGUTU Robert K.
Writer and Author