Living a purposeful life by damilare charles og’leye

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?

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nice article.... It sure help in one way or the other.

I can't believe it that post like this attracts just a comment. Uhm...