Be Unique, Be Yourself
Funny how you'd ask a kid today what he/she'd like to be when they grow up and they'd say, 'I want to be like my daddy or like my mummy.'
You ask the same question to teenagers and you'd hear them saying they want to be like R.Kelly or Obama; like Dora Akunyili or Beyonce.
These people are great in their own rights, yes they are; read the papers, but that's not enough reason to spend your time living out a life just trying to be an image of another person.
This same question is not just limited to kids and teens, ask adults, business men/women and they'd also tell you they want to be like Bill Gates or Ellen Sirleaf Johnson.
We all have people as role models, who we want to be like.
Folks, we live in a world that is populated with more than a billion people. If you doubt me, ask the Chinese. Different people from different backgrounds, some are born with silver spoons and others with no spoon at all. We live in a world of challenges and solutions, obstacles and stepping-stones, depending on where you're looking.
Most of us spend our time and energy looking for shoes to fit into, leaving ours behind, trying to live life and act the way our role models do. It's good but that's not a determinant factor that we'd be like them, because we'd be surprised that we'll come-up short of our expectations if we spend such energy chasing the wind.
Success is 2% gift and 98% hard work, so it goes to reason that we all have this 2% in our genetic make-up but we need to put in work, carving out the spoons that we missed at birth.
Now, I'm not trying to say it's bad to want to be like somebody else, all I'm trying to say is that's not the main reason why you came to earth. You didn't stumble here from space; God placed you here for a reason.
Now to share a personal thought: I'd say God created you, giving you an empty book to write your life in. So while we are here writing our life story, I wouldn't want your book to be filled with how so-so and so is but rather how 'I is'.
For as you go around trying out people's shoes, who's going to try yours? Even if you don't make it big in life, console yourself with the thought that at least your shoes are worth trying out.
Copyright © 2009 Stanley Anukege
I just want to put dew into people's lives. When you go about filling people's shoes, ask yourself, "Who's filling mine?"