So you think you know it all? I doubt you do.
I recently conversed with a lady who was on the verge of stress because she felt that she wasn’t at a place in life she wanted to be. All manner of advice and assurances that things would open up with time fell on deaf ears. Her main worry was that she was growing old and she hadn’t achieved much…
I politely requested to know her age.
25🤦🏽♂️.
When I look back to when I was 25, I realize how unschooled in life and devoid of experiences I was. I may have thought I was a veteran then, but I was literally still a child.
At 25, you’re only 7 years into being an adult. So you’re just 7 years old as a functioning adult. I have come to appreciate age as a factor of mental growth.
Stop looking at time as a wholesale concept. Break it down into compartments you can deal with. Time is a limiting devil. When you start imagining how by a certain age you should have achieved certain milestones, you’re setting yourself up for depression and certain failure should you miss your time setting.
Just accept your place in life and work hard. Work smart and work with a smile on, and everything good shall follow.
Pursue quality over obligation. Take your time incubating your ideas and goals without the element of deadlines… And your output shall impress you.
Look here…
You were once a class five child… You looked upto a class eight student with some respect. As a class eight child, you were the senior most kid in primary school, you were a candidate, the epitome of primary school ascension. You could bully a class five child and feel powerful.
Then you went to high school…. And you were immediately rendered the bottom of the food chain. You were no longer that menacing class eight kid. Third formers and fourth formers could bully you into submission. You had absolutely no power. You were the one sent to fetch darkness and fill it in a bucket…
You had no dominion over your snacks…
Then you became a fourth form candidate… And you were finally the boss. You strutted the school halls like a viking lord… Terrorising ‘monos’… You could go on sports and drama trips because the prefects were your peers.
You soon joined campus.
You were a freshman. Absolute vulnerable and in a new environment. Seniors confused all fresher girls… Those fresher girls wanted ‘real’ men, not the fresher boys who’s only power was to boast in the village to highschool girls…
Then you became a fourth year graduate fellow… You were a student leader and a budding philosopher… You commanded respect from your juniors… You could rewrite Obama’s college thesis in pristine form… You had arrived at the pinnacle of your education life. You gave talks in schools and started community projects.
Then you graduated. Got employed.
You started as an intern. Vulnerable and inexperienced. Your salary was paid in lunches and tips. The boss gave you too much work and no time to function socially. Life showed you that you hadn’t even started living it. A promotion seemed like an alien concept… You were too shy to mingle with others in the cafeteria. You lived in a single room with a stingy relative and trekked many miles to get cheaper PSVs to work…
6 years in the company you were the branch manager. Experienced and driving your first car. You had reached the pinnacle of your career. You were ready to move on up….
You went to a new organization. Greener pastures you thought. Higher salary, and more benefits. However you soon learnt that it came with higher responsibility and very tight schedules. You wanted to quit many times because you were unhappy. But the loans and the responsibility of providing for self and family couldn’t let you…
I could go on and on and on…
What I’m trying to allude here is that every phase of life reminds you to start all over. You’re always humbled by the reality that you’re not yet where you want to be…
A class eight kid, a fourth former, a fourth year graduand, a branch manager… All have superiority complexes that briefly deludes them to imagine they’ve succeeded. And herein lies the devil of incompetence. That complex coupled with ego can easily make them complacent…
The class five kid, the first former, the fresher and the intern … All have hunger to rise and succeed… They’re eager to fight their way up and to change their circumstances… Since the principles of life are constant.
#retireyourego today and go back to class five. Learn something new, try something new. Stop being complacent and arrogant to yourself.
Accept to grow, accept to be taught and accept that your know nothing. Only then, will you find your mojo and rise above your circumstances.
