Nobody is an accident. We are all on this planet for a purpose. Nobody is a nobody. We all have something to offer our generation. That is why we are all unique. No two people on the planet have identical DNA, finger prints and voice prints etc. We are all wonderfully and beautifully crafted by God Almighty. We are not mass produced, but uniquely custom built.

There is a reason and a purpose for each of our individual lives. Nobody is useless or purposeless. It is our duty to find out why we were born before we die. Like without purpose is like an aimless rigmarole. Like a jigsaw puzzle that forms part of a giant picture, we will always remain a misfit until we locate our slot.

You may acquire all the outer trappings of success and affluence, you may even be a role model worshiped by millions. you may have it all, but be dying on the inside. Life will lose all meaning, and sometimes, suicide is not far away…

Every being has a purpose, including plants, animals and inanimate things.

Dr Myles Munroe in his book “In Pursuit of Purpose” gives a beautiful analogy. A manufacturer determines the purpose of his product before ever starting work on product development and design. He decides what the product is to do, how it does it and builds into the product the ability to achieve purpose.

He uses uses an electric fan for his analogy. The purpose is simply to cool. The how is by circulating air thereby producing a cooling effect. To circulate air, fan blades are designed and mounted at a certain angle such that when they are rotate, they force air forward. To rotate, an electric motor is in-built into the fan assembly.

As the manufacturer goes through the product development, design and testing phases, he has the purpose firmly in his mind. To cool. Purpose drives all the process, from product development to testing. Aesthetics is by the way. It the fan does not cool, then it is not ready for release to the market place. Purpose is the main parameter, as the fan undergoes final testing. Without purpose, the fan is as good as useless. Everything is on hold until purpose is achieved

By the time the press release goes out to announce a new product launch, the fan would have been certified fit for purpose, to cool. The ability to achieve purpose has been in-built into the fan. The fan does not have to try any stunt to produce the cooling effect. It was designed to cool. It was equipped to cool. It was tested and found fit to cool. It was born to cool. End of story.

Even if nobody else does, believe in you.

As the fan has a purpose before being, so are we on this planet. There is a plan and a purpose at the back of the mind of our Creator before He released us for touch down on planet earth. Your purpose is in-built. If purpose is not known, abuse (abnormal use) is inevitable. One can never find true and lasting fulfillment outside of purpose. You will be like fish out of water. An aquarium is a sad replica.

What is your purpose?

Who are you?

Until you know who you are, you can never be who you were born to be…

Most of us have not taken time out to make out our personal definition of success. We simply flow with the general conception and media propaganda. More often than not, we have no clue as to what we are after. Time after time, people we consider a success get to the zenith and wander what next. They slide into depression and in go into a lot of funny things, drugs, women, perverse lifestyle, exotic beliefs and all the works.

Some manage to hang on regardless. Some call off the sheer hypocrisy, commit suicide and call it a day. On the outside, they are the epitome of success and have it all. On the inside, they are dying slowly, crying for help. Their cries get drowned in the noise of adulation and star worship. Nobody would have believed them anyhow. They have it all.

If you are born a marathoner, you can never be fulfilled no matter how many Olympic hundred meters gold medals you win or world records you hold. Something will always be missing. You can never succeed at being someone else. Externally you can, but internally, sadly no. in the context of our existence on this planet, success is mission accomplished, being who you were born to be, finishing what you came to this planet to accomplish. There is no higher attainment than this under the sun.

This reminds me of a World War II film I watched way back in college. I have not been able to recall what the title was, but the last scene has stuck in my brain all these years.

The battlefield was North Africa. Germany’s General Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps was locked in a battle for supremacy with America’s General Montgomery’s Third Army. It was an armored tank affair. General Montgomery needed to blast through Rommel’s ring of steel to get to Libya. He had to face the dreaded German panzers, their top of the range armored tanks. Erwin Rommel was not nicknamed the desert fox for fun. The battles were fierce. The Americans were outnumbered, outclassed and outgunned. They pushed forward regardless. By sheer guts and ingenuity, the Americans ran a ring round the German panzers, boxed them in and turned the German position into a firing range.

I still remember the last scene as if it was yesterday. The tired but victorious American Colonel stood on his tank and surveyed the smoking ruins of panzers through his field binoculars. As he jumped down, he beckoned on his signals man and dictated a short message:

Report back to headquarters,
that the Germans have abandoned their tanks,
and walked back to Germany

The mission was to knock out the panzers and create a corridor for the advance on Libya. They did it. Mission accomplished. End of story…

Within our sub conscious, we have determined our maximum estimated potential; how far we can go, based on our current set of circumstances and outlook. This covers the whole gamut of our human experiences; spirit, soul and body. This has been programmed into our subconscious. This determines how high we aim in every facet of life.

This box defines our reality.

Imagine that your biggest dream is to marry your childhood sweetheart, hold down a job, raise a family of two, and retire with a pension. All your efforts will be geared in this direction. For you, owning a villa in the south of France is not possible. Being invited to feature in the Oprah Winfrey show is pure fairy tale. It is outside your reality. Now here comes along a childhood friend. He has this brilliant idea for a start-up. He wants you in on it before he lets in others.

He has made a revolutionary invention and has duly patented it. He plans to commercialize it, and take the company public in five years. By that time, your share of the stock will be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Your mind bounces the idea. It is not possible. It is outside your reality.

You thank him for finding you worthy to be invited and graciously decline. You are saving for your mortgage down payment. Buying a house is the biggest investment within your box. You let pass an opportunity of a lifetime.

This box/limits defines the size of our dreams, the level of our expectations and the magnitude of what we dare aim for. In some professions, your educational qualifications determine how far you can go in your career, a certain grade level. When you attain it, you know you have hit the ceiling. This box is like a glass ceiling. It is invisible. You know it exists, hence you don’t bother to go beyond it.

This box exists in our mind. We determined the boundaries. Our parentage and present circumstance play a large part, but were are the ones that ultimately get to determine the limits.

For a moment, imagine your reaction if your get presented with a suitcase containing one million dollars cash. You just saved the life of the only child of a multi-millionaire. His personal aide announces gently that stacked within is one million dollars from the grateful millionaire.

Some folks will simply faint. Some will be shell-shocked. A variety of extreme emotions will be exhibited. What has just happened is that they ran into an event outside their reality. Majority of folks will not know what to do with the money. The amount is outside their capacity to handle. Sadly, most will blow it all in less that one year, and return back to their reality.

We have to recognize that the limits were self-imposed. We are the only ones that can remove it. Some authority figures in our lives can tell us what we can, or cannot do. It is what we believe that clinches it. Nobody can impose any beliefs on us. They are self-inflicted. If you believe you cannot do it, you jolly well can’t. If you believe you can do it, you stand a good chance

Most times, our dreams exist outside our reality. To us, it is impossible, a fairy tale. Since it is impossible, we cannot attain it, and since we cannot attain it, there is no point trying. So we archive our dreams and move on with our reality.

We owe ourselves a duty to dismantle our self-imposed limits and go for our dreams. As we achieve small victories on the way, that emboldens us and strengthens our belief that our aim is achievable. What people say about us does not matter. Public opinion changes with the weather. What we say or believe about ourselves does.

Dismantle the box and break free. Believe the unbelievable, see that invisible, imagine the inconceivable and reach out beyond your wildest imagination. The future belongs to dreamers, people who can see the future before it happens.

If you believe you cannot do something, then you will not even try. You will give up without lifting a finger. When you label something impossible, you brain simply shuts down. It does not bother processing the information at it’s disposal. It is not worth the effort.

If somehow, you start to believe that it is possible, then like a shut down plant, your brain will roar back into life. Adrenaline will start pumping, and you begin to think out options and scenarios on how to solve the problem. It all happens in the mind.

A seemingly insignificant event in a new office taught me a lesson I will never forget.

I was seconded to client’s office for a period of one year. As new kid in the block, I was issued a temporary pass pending the issuance an ID. Electronic keys controlled the doors to the floors. Access way by swiping your ID across the sensor. Since my ID was not ready, I usually hovered around the doors, waiting for someone to come through, so that I can “sneak” in. Folks looked at me funny. This went on for some days. Then one fine afternoon, I hovered and hovered, no one came through. Time was going. No help was in sight. In exasperation, I used my mobile to call colleague within to come bale me out.

“Where is your temporary pass” he asked as he opened the door. I flashed it. He laughed.

“That pass opens all the doors” he said.

It was a sobering moment for me.

I felt sorry for myself, for all the embarrassing moments I hovered around the passage, waiting for someone to come through, while I had the key in my pocket.

I felt scared, and sad. I wondered how many times I’ve had the answer within, while I labored without, seeking…

It made me wonder what stuff I had within, that I had no clue about. I wondered how many times I’ve sold myself short because I knew not what stuff I was made of. I wondered if I could have gone much further in life, if only I knew.

It is not too late to believe in your self. If you have a God given dream, you have all it takes to execute it. Do not give up on yourself. Don’t allow the magnitude of the dream or the apparent obstacles to faze you. If you believe you can, chances are, you can. If you believe you can’t, then you can’t.

Do not allow negative things said about you by authority figures box you into going for mediocrity. Their opinion does not matter if you believe you can.

Even if nobody else does, believe in you.