Steel magnate Andrew Carnegie had a big problem.

He was the wealthiest man in the world, yet he fervently believed that the rich man holds his money in trust on behalf of the public and that he should use the great bulk of his fortune to advance society rather than pass it on to his children.

When Carnegie put this plan into action—he had outlined his intentions in an essay dubbed “The Gospel of Wealth”—disposing of his wealth proved more difficult than he had imagined, for the interest on his vast fortune compounded faster than he could spend it. Soon he began to fear dying while still wealthy, mocked by those who had found his “gospel” foolish. Here his friend Elihu Root came to his rescue by suggesting a trust, which would give others the responsibility of managing and dispersing his treasure. The Carnegie Corp. was the result, and Carnegie was relieved of his burden.

This is a radical example of a man turning a burden into blessings. Not only did Carnegie feel enormous relief, able to die contented, but his donations to libraries, research foundations, and colleges and universities helped educate countless numbers of people.

Weight, Weight, and More Weight

Carnegie’s troubles were minor compared with the burdens borne by most people, then or now. The single mom working a job while raising two children, the small business entrepreneur putting in 12-hour days to provide for his growing family, the 80-year-old scraping by on Social Security: The list is as large as the population. We all have weights of one kind or another on our shoulders.

“The strain’s so bad that every 16 hours everybody lies down and gets a rest,” as the Stage Manager says at the end of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town.”

Sometimes these weights of obligations and crazy schedules become incredibly destructive. They can crush the spirit, provoke resentment and anger, and lead to everything from depression to broken marriages. We all know people in this fix; we ourselves may be buckling under those barbells right now.

Fortunately, there are ways to counterbalance these weights, even to transform them into benefits and blessings. Here are a few suggestions gleaned from books, online sources, and my own experiences and observations.

Compartmentalize Your Time

Psychoanalyst Erica Komisar offered working moms what she considers an essential piece of advice.

“When they come home, they belong to their baby,” she said.

Compartmentalizing in this sense means drawing boundaries among the demands and activities of our lives. Essentially, it is a “live in the moment” philosophy. When you are on a job, focus on the job. When you are at home, focus on the family. Whatever the task or occasion, be as present as possible in that moment.

Fifteen years ago, when I would take my kids and grandkids to the beach, it would require two to three days to leave behind the rhythms of my workaday schedule and finally feel as if I was really on vacation. By that point, nearly half the week had gone by. Then one year I tried a new approach; I announced myself as on vacation the instant I entered the rental house. That act of closing the door on my obligations back home and opening the one marked vacation worked like a charm, and my beach holiday stretched out before me.

Of course, most of the time it is not that easy. Because our various tasks and duties tend to bleed into one another, to compartmentalize our days, to raise the drawbridge between one activity and another, requires discipline and mindful action. However, with some practice, compartmentalization can be a useful tool for reducing stress and clearing the mind.

Accentuate the Positive

In January 1945, with World War II still raging, Johnny Mercer’s “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive” became a hit song. Here is the chorus:

You’ve got to ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive
E-lim-i-nate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mr. In-Between

From the disasters reported daily in the news to the rancor of political divisions the size of the Grand Canyon, our age bends a knee to negativity, which is as contagious as the common cold. The strain and exhaustion from the weights we carry leave us highly susceptible to this viral gloom and defeatism.

Yet there are tangible measures, metaphorical vitamins, if you will, that can help prevent this infection.  We can start and end each day with gratitude, counting our blessings rather than our burdens. We can maintain a daily to-do list, which helps keep us grounded and offers the satisfaction of crossing out another job done. We can moderate outside influences such as the news and social media, especially when it has little to no impact on us personally. Most important of all, we can make note of our victories, however small, rather than brood on setbacks, as so many people do.

Change Your Attitude With Altitude

When you are fighting every day with your head down in the trenches, it is awfully hard to have a general view of the battlefield.

A woman I know well is homeschooling six of her eight children and works two part-time jobs to help her husband support their family. That mom is in the trenches from dawn until bedtime, battling away against a demanding daily schedule and seemingly endless tasks and responsibilities. Countless millions of other people are just like her, soldiering on through tough days of managing work and family matters.

In the trench warfare of World War I, tethered balloons lifted observers far above a battlefield to get a fuller picture of the action. If we do the same, if we lift ourselves upward from time to time, take in the big picture, and remember what we are fighting for, the perspective and motivation we gain should freshen our hearts and minds.

When she was 19 months old, a disease left Helen Keller blind and deaf for the rest of her life. Despite these terrible afflictions, she later became a renowned speaker and writer, noting at one point, “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”

Vision is what we get from that ride in the balloon. It is the fuel that keeps us going.

How the Burden Becomes a Blessing

Some religions and philosophies have long regarded hardships as opportunities for spiritual growth, the whetstones that sharpen the blades of virtue. Stoicism, for instance, which has attracted renewed attention in the 21st century, gives us this quote from Marcus Aurelius: “What stands in the way becomes the way.”

In today’s world, what often stands in the way is not a single obstacle, but the frenzied pace of life itself. The tools recommended above—and there are others worthy of investigation—help us to run this daily gauntlet of tasks and responsibilities.

Yet the real reward comes from running the race itself. If we know why we are running, and if the reasons are honorable, our spirits may indeed grow stronger. Few of us may realize it at the time, but we’re in a forgery of virtue, being shaped and fitted with goods such as wisdom, courage, and self-control. Moreover, those around us, particularly those we love—our family and friends—gain as well by the example and the kindnesses we offer them.

When at the end of another rough day, you can look at yourself in the mirror and say, “Well, I gave it my best shot,” that is no confession of defeat but rather the blessing of the burden you carry.