Hello friends! I bring greetings to you from my motherland, Nigeria. In a time like this, I feel I should encourage and motivate my steemian colleagues. There's a need to live on our own terms while appreciating God even for the little we have.
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5 years ago, I mc-ed a programme and a man accosted me after the event, and questioned why I didn't introduce him. I politely explained that the organizers didn't give me his name on time. The man did not take my explanations. He yelled, "Am I no longer relevant in this state?"
Inside me, I replied him, well, you said so yourself. In my years of engaging in public affairs, there is a word I hear very often. "Relevance". People do the unthinkable to be seen as relevant and to get validation. They want to be perceived as important, influential, rich, belonging to the top class and they feel so bad and undervalued at the slightest snub.
I see too many people who have what others are looking for, but remain unhappy because they don't appreciate what they have. It is a miserable way to live. True joy and peace lies in fulfilling your PURPOSE!
Embracing your purpose liberates you from the chains of seeking validation, for your worth is rooted in who you are, and what you chose to do with your life, not who others think you should be, and not in likes and shares. So dear friends, when you live on purpose, you take away from others, the powers to make you happy or sad, feeling rich or poor, accepted or rejected. You now live on your own terms!
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I was in a commercial bus from Umuahia to Calabar, and we got to a really bad spot (there are only few good spots on that road). And I saw this couple and some kids infront of a mud house, they were all so happy, playing, jumping around.
Their house was on the edge of a ravine and looked like a place that will fall in the next day. Dear friends, I know one day your dreams will come through and you will be happy. I know one day, some unconnected pieces of your life will come together and make sense. You will begin to appreciate your failures and sad moments.
But you don't have to wait for that day to be happy. You can be happy now. Like my friends at the mud house, there is something to be happy about. For once, stop the comparison about what others have achieved and where you thought you would be at this time. Just be thankful.
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Friends, I wish to announce to you that you are a millionaire. I mean it. Yes, you! You have value worth millions inside of you. The good news is, nobody can steal it from you. Value is in-built. It can never be destroyed. It is in you. So, why can I not see it if it is there? Your value will manifest more as you discover, grow and develop yourself.
As you become better, people will appreciate your person. Value is like gold, it is not appreciated in its raw state, it has to be refined for people to rush for it at good prices. Value is like petroleum, crude oil, it must be refined and processed into finished products for cars and other automobiles.
If you are not respected by people today, it has nothing to do with what you have in you. Don't also hold it against the people who look down on you. Let them give you a little time, you are still mining your gold, they will appreciate you when your time is ripe. You are a person of value. That is why you should invest in yourself.
But, the first step is to know that you can make it, know that you are a person of value, accept yourself and resolve to keep working. After all, "If you do nothing, you will become nothing".