Unpopular side with Yinka Ijabiyi
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What is it that makes us what or who we are? Are we the sum total of all the parts that make us up or are we the total sum of that part of us that is the greatest contributor, the loudest voice in our make up? Or are we as beings really no stronger than our weakest part in the true spirit of team? I have a feeling that we will never know. Answers to these questions will probably never be clear cut; we will never be certainly certain.
Yet to find purpose in this life, we must be able to answer this question and others like it. We are driven alright but what drives us is the bigger other question that we cannot answer that easily. When we know what drives us, we will know where we are going, our purpose in life and be pretty clear and we will be a lot happier with every point we are on our journey as we go there. We will better control ourselves and direct our steps rightly. The question we will continually ask ourselves will be skewed towards the journey we have chosen. The saying that what we permit is what continues in our lives is so very true. We can be anything and anyone we want to be. It is up to us. No two people’s journeys are similar even if they meet at some point along the way. That is a true fact.
You always have a choice. Do you know it? Would you take a chance? Or would you simply lie down and be trampled over by the world? All up to you. Would you live a lie or would you be bold to live the truth and watch it lead you to true happiness? All up to you. Would you stand for something and stand by that things come hell or flood? You can if you want to. It’s all up to you. It’s all up to me.
A life of purpose comes first from determining who or what you want to be in life. What is your vision for your life? Where do you want to end up? Most goals in life lead in a roundabout fashion from wherever we aim to head to just one place – happiness. Ultimately we are all individualistic and selfish. Which is fine. That selfish streak keeps us alive and helps extend the life of our species. There are of course different times and different reasons we can choose to be selfless. But deep down, when all is said and done and the entire thing is stripped to the bone, we did or do everything first for ourselves before others. Hence that injunction about loving others as ourselves. For those who wish to have no love of others, they will first ensure they have no love of themselves; they then can’t give what they don’t have. Simple.
A full life is one lived for a purpose that advances humanity in one way or the other. Sometimes something is more positive for us than something good. Coming back from the back of beyond is oddly more fulfilling than having always lived in a good place. Necessity is the mother of invention. Some things would be unnecessary if we had no need for them. We discover based on a need to be comfortable and by extension be happy. So, as long as we feel we have a need, we will always seek improvement. That is a fact of life.
These ruminations were not meant to help you. They were purely meant for me. Except of course you too had thought these very same thoughts and had wondered if anybody else thought them as simplistically as this. A truism in life is the fact that no matter who we are or are not, what we are or are not, we are not alone. There are at least 7billion of us. There will be millions at least aligned to one thought process, one belief system or one way of being or the other at any point in time. Whether we can find people of like minds; or even people of unlike minds, will determine how much growth we can achieve and how much change we can end up bringing to the world.
We are the change we want. We are the people we want to be. When all is said and done, everything is up to us. We can be anything we want to be. We can achieve anything we wish to achieve. In our hands is our life. In our hands is our death. Whichever we feed will survive for longer. Choose wisely. Neither is bad. But still, choose wisely. And then make the most of it.
