Introduction
Welcome to life,
problem guaranteed! Wait before you giggle, the fact that there is problem
means you are a problem solver. May be you think there is a more palatable way
I could have said that to your hearing. But I did not plan to make you live in
the euphoria that life is a bed of roses. Expect to step on some thorns,
because for every star on the shoulder of an army general, there is always a
scar beneath his uniform. Pastor E.A Adeboye once said, “the fact that you love
God doesn’t mean there will be no problem in your life, problems are part and
parcel of every man”. Living a purposeful life requires you to be truthful to
yourself. How can you do that? It is through self discovery. You will discover
what you are when you painstakingly analyse what you are entail as a
multi-talented person, who is able and limitless, rather than a constrained
person some like to see in themselves.
Purposeful life
defined
Purposeful life
is a life according to predetermined objectives. Everyone on earth is but for
certain objectives and the world is deteriorating because many people have
misplaced their priorities here on earth. May be I need to inform you that none
of the great men that have ever graced this planet called earth has been able
to achieve more than ten percent of his potentials. I expect that to ring bell
in your ear if this whole thing is meant for you. To live a purposeful life,
you must be determined for self-discovery.
You must be
determined
One of the
quotes I learnt earlier in life is, “determination is the root of success”. I
used to write it on the cover of my notebooks and the more I grow the more I
read more meaning to it. Determination makes you pursue your purpose
stubbornly. You may hear inspirational speech or read life changing books, but
nothing will happen if you are not determined to make something happens. George
Horace Loriner said, “you have to get up every morning with determination if
you are going to go to bed with satisfaction”. Therefore, determination enables
man to take whatever ability he has in whatever he is doing and utilise it to
the maximum. Your determination will make you restless and unsatisfied. Abraham
Maslow and other behavioural motivational theorists believe that “man is an
insatiable animal” which move to the next need when a need is achieved. Thomas
Edison, a great man indeed said, “restlessness is discontent is the first
necessity of progress. Show me a satisfied man and I will show you a failure”.
And you need to
discover yourself
This is the
process of realising who you really are. In each person there is something of a
mystery, something inexhaustible, and something that cannot be easily
calculated. What you are is God’s gift to you, what you make of yourself is
your gift to God and society. I don’t want you to disappoint God and I don’t
want you to disappoint this world, make every bit of the remaining strength in
you count for the advancement of humanity. You need not to be confused; you can
never give what you never had. You must have been useful to yourself before you
can be to others.
Process leading
to self-discovery:
Self Analysis
 |
Self Knowledge
|
Self Discovery
Self Analysis
Self analysis
involves critical examination of oneself in an attempt to identify ones Strengths, Weaknesses, opportunities and
Threats (SWOT).
Internal factors
These are
controllable situations in a man. While strengths are the factors favouring a
person, weaknesses are the inhibitors of the strengths in a person.
Strengths
The strengths
are the potentials, talents, abilities, skills and prowess inherent in a man. Abilities
and skills can be identified easily and probably measured; however, potentials
and talents are immeasurable because they required instinct, which is not so
easy to come by. If none of the great men we know lives up to ten percent of
their potentials, then the extent of a man’s potentials will remain unknown.
Potentials are what you are capable of doing and being capable is not enough
for achievement. Achievement requires the exertion of energy through effort
expended. This is to let you know that your potentials are beyond your
imagination, so start to look beyond the ordinary.
Weaknesses
The weaknesses
are the constraints to the inherent strengths in a person. Sometimes, people
see their financial status as the major obstacle to their destiny; however,
money is not everything. There are certain forces that work together for a
man’s success. If you have no idea of what you want to be, there will not be
any headway and the resources will not just forthcoming. I hope that is
understood by you as intended. Self analysis will reveal to you what you
need to do and how can go about it to live a purposeful life. I agree with Theodore
Roosevelt that, “do what you can with what you have where you are”. Joseph was
a penniless prisoner until he used his strength (dream interpretation) over his
weakness (slavery). Wes Brown was right that, ”you have no limitation except
the one you created yourself”.
External factors
These are the
uncontrollable situations around a man.
Opportunities
There are
certain opportunities in every environment a man finds himself and this is one
the reasons the above quotes by Theodore Roosevelt was supported by me. You
really need to do what you can with what you have where you are. Opportunities
are chances presented by happenstances around a person and they are limitless,
except those who created one. Charles Schwab also supported Les Brown position
with this, “when a man has put a limit on what he will do, he has put a limit
on what he can do”.
Someone must be
instinctive before he can identify opportunities because as David Oyedepo puts
it, “opportunities usually presented themselves in overall and therefore, look
like work”. You can liken it to a maxim which says, “nobody wants to die but
everyone wants to go to heaven”. Mostly, what requires efforts does not motivate
people.
Threats
As there are
opportunities around a person, there are certain factors that inhibit the ease
at which someone can utilise the opportunities. Therefore, threats are the
constraints to the opportunities. Most of the times, what people termed as
constraint if “the fear of failure”. Former United States of America President,
Franklin D. Roosevelt described FEAR as “nameless, unreasoning, unjustified
terror which paralyses needed efforts to convert retreat into advance:
F
False
E
Evidence
A Appearing
R
Real
If you can
conquer your fear, you will conquer yourself. Edmund Hillary, the first man to
get to the zenith of the highest mountain (Mount Everest)
in the world put it straight when he said, “it is not the mountain that we
conquered but ourselves”.
Self knowledge
The more someone
analyses self the quicker and better he gets in knowing himself. Self knowledge
is about ourselves in relationship to human kind, to all creation and
ultimately to God. No one can discover himself with inadequate self-knowledge,
and living a purposeful life will be unrealistic without self-discovery.
Discovering
oneself is beyond what a single book could teach, its depth is more than an
hour seminar or conference, it is a lifetime exercise. If human potentials are
innumerable, definitely, getting to maximise them shall be unending. Do I
convey this message to the appropriate mind?
The best
investment is the one in a human being, invest massively in yourself. People
like to live a successful man’s life but they don’t want to do what the
successful man did to attain that status. There are always relevant books that
can help aid your knowledge and understating about yourself and life. Somebody
told me sometimes ago that no matter what a book contains, it can never be
irrelevant. I don’t joke with books, even a torn newspaper. Other areas are
training and seminar. Then don’t underestimate any teaching, no matter how
contrary to your belief or perception and always give deeper meaning to life.
What I believe is that there more to life than meet the eyes. Do you think so
too?
This message is delivered on Sunday, 9th January, 2011,
at Redeemed Christian Church of God, Peculiar People Parish, Sanyo Ibadan, Oyo State.
(c)2011
