LET IT BE YOU

You have witnessed, heard of or even read about people who have made it big in their various endeavors in life. One of your friends seems to be on an endless property buying spree yet your situations appear similar in your judgment. Maybe you have even questioned his source of extra financial muscles; after all, you are age mates. The guy next door just bought a new ride and your own children cannot afford you peace. Your own car keeps developing issue after issue and for obvious reasons, you cannot afford another one. You are almost contemplating moving out of your current neighborhood since you cannot keep up with the pace at which success seems to be happening around you. No one seems to recognize you any more in all the social gatherings that you attend; everyone seems to be doing better.
You have admired how successful Mike, your other buddy has been at keeping a good body courtesy of consistent workout at the gym. Probably, your marriage has nothing rosy to write home about; words like ‘intimacy’ seem to have mysteriously been plucked out of your marriage dictionary and pasted in your neighbors’. You seem to be successfully defending the title for the Most Quarrelsome Couple in your hood. You cannot understand how other couples afford to smile and walk hand in hand in the evenings. Your own children have become rogue; indiscipline is the word the teachers, neighbors and friends keep using to describe them. Still you cannot understand how your children’s age mates go to church religiously alongside their parents while yours remain rebellious.
Your colleagues seem to be growing in their careers at your own expense; you cannot explain why you are the oldest serving member of your department. Many have come and risen as you watch. Many years ago, your employer never placed much emphasis on higher education as a requirement for growth and you procrastinated the wish to further your studies. Today, you suffer consequences of that inordinate delay. In essence, your role in this world seems to have been reduced to that of a success spectator.
It is important to emphasize at this early stage that anything you commit your mind to is still attainable; that has not changed. Inaction is the greatest enemy of achievement. Perhaps you have not been deliberate with your actions in life for far too long; you, all along have allowed your life to rely on gravity. It is time to quit the terraces of success spectators and jump into the arena of success players. All is not lost; your peers who seem to be doing well are only deliberate with their actions; they are a bit keen with what they do and they keep focused on what they need to achieve at the end of the day. Riding on gravity will only keep pulling you down. You need to resist the tides of convention and begin putting directed effort in your life. Strive to be outstanding in your endeavors.
Your friend who is doing well financially, did something about it; the colleague who graduated as you watched had to go back to school; your neighbor whose children seem to be well-behaved chose not to delegate parenting because it cannot be delegated; the guy whose well-built masculinity you keep admiring was in the gym as you slept; the couples whose happiness has been baffling you have decided and taken time and action to invest in each other’s happiness. You too, can and should do it!
History is made every second that goes by. Success keeps happening every other day. Stop admiring and let it be you. Each day, someone joins the gym and embraces a total life style change for the sake of his/her health, each time someone chooses to spend time and nurture his/her children in the ways of God, let it be you. Each time someone is doing something memorable; each time someone chooses to read self-help books to develop their mental well-being; each day someone chooses to deliver and exceed on targets for their career advancement, please let it be you. You have what it takes; all you need is to believe in your potential, focus on deliverables and take deliberate and consistent action towards attainment of your objectives. You are not a second generation creature; what those who wow you with their accomplishments are made of, you too have it. Next time it’s happening, please let it be you. I believe that even YOU CAN DO BETTER!

Roy Okonji
Motivational Speaker and Author