Saturday 20 February 2010

The You In You

Isn’t it a bit absurd to say that there could be a ‘you’ in you? Well, it won’t be at the end of this. Every human is designed with a greater ‘man’ within him but this man in question is by nature, ‘asleep’. I would have said that this man within you is ‘dead’, but by the time you finish reading this, you would be thinking about a miracle to bring him back to life; being asleep, you only need to wake him. The man within will not wake up until you wake him up and what it takes to wake him is determination. Determination here, in a simple sense, means the strong will that motivates you to achieve something.

Ironically, God – your creator – has deposited equally strengthened men within us all, but not all of us become great. What’s the cause of this? Einstein, Newton, Franklin, Socrates, Edison – we both know the names are endless – were great men, but they aren’t different from you and I. Why is this? Like a poet said in a poem, 'The good Lord has sent the fish but we must dig the bait'. God will not wake that great man within you; you have to do it yourself. God has played His part well – putting the man within you, but you must play your own part too – waking him up. That is the bait you must dig.

Benjamin Carson, one of the greatest Neurosurgeons in the world – if not the greatest, was named the class dullard at first until his mother helped him realize the fact about the sleeping man within him. He discovered it himself and how he could be a better person in life and he didn’t just get better, he’s one of the best in his field today. The man within him is not greater than that man within you; it only took him a tangible amount of determination. In his first year in pre-medicine school, he was advised to either drop out of school or take fewer courses. This simply means it’s never too late. He had a great will to live for something and you too can. Get tired of failure and cast out the spirit called average then you’ll find out the most intelligent guy in your class with the highest C.G.P.A isn’t the best after all, or that better colleague of yours isn’t just good enough.

Determination is not how best you can do something; it is how best that thing can be done. There is no end to how much greatness you can achieve in life; time is the only poison that makes us limited and that is why the right time to become better is ‘now’. If you don’t do anything about your enemy called average, you will not achieve anything great in life. You have to think beyond the mental way we visualize the shape of the earth. You need to think outside the box but within the field of reasoning.

It is important to note that there is no one on earth born with special greatness. All great men attained that height they got to with time; they worked their way up there. They simply woke up that great man within them. It is never too late to decide on how you too can attain a great height; the most important thing is finishing well and not the starting time. The effective management of time, understanding yourself and determination will get you there in no time. Just challenge yourself and think about how you can become better in whatever you do.

In Life, never believe that you’re in a competition with others; it traumatizes you. Believe you’re in a competition with yourself; this motivates you. Success is not a factor of the qualities you must possess to succeed; it is a factor of what you can do with the qualities you possess. You have no excuse to fail to succeed. You’ve got all it takes and you must do everything possible to achieve success which includes getting out of your comfort zone. If it takes you to burn the midnight candle, do so. It’s just this one life you’ve got; utilize it. Everybody likes to celebrate successful people, failures are never celebrated.

You know better by now that you can be a better person if and only if you awaken that great man within you. The man within you is crying for help to be awakened, the world is crying for another great man and your creator is waiting for you to discover your true self. It is left for you to satisfy them or continue to live an average life. It’s a decision you must take alone. A great poet and writer, Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, 'What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us'. He understands the importance of the strength of the man within every human and he effectively utilized it. You can utilize that strength too. It doesn’t cost much. It’s your turn to be celebrated and now is the time to start working your way up there.

Too many words don’t do the magic, understanding does. I hope to meet you up there, where regrets won’t have to replace fulfillment. You’ve got all it takes. It’s in you.