Diary of A Writer: When Will Men Discuss You?

This question was thrown at us one Sunday morning during a sermon in my church. I don’t know how others reacted to this brainstorming question but it kept me thinking all through the week. I kept asking myself the same question repeatedly on a daily basis and each time I hear people discussing about the success of others.

 The moment that question came at me, I knew I was guilty and that really got me disturbed. I then realised that I really had a lot of work to do in getting to the level where people will begin to discuss me for my challenges, failures, and achievements. Some of us are just too busy concerning ourselves with the lives of others while ours is at stake. Sometimes we get really so engrossed about some individual’s success that we follow all of their daily activities. We know when they get their new car, houses etc. This can obviously be seen in football fans. Nigerians especially are too attached with foreign clubs and footballers. They know everything about them and even some of their personal affairs. It is so amazing the way that some are even addicted and they will go extra mile to defend their respective clubs or footballers. Go to a newspaper stand very early in the morning and you will see them arguing within themselves over players that are making billions of naira while they themselves are jobless. I really think this set of people needs to be orientated.

 When will men discuss you? This simply means that, when will you get to the level where men will begin to talk about you? When will men begin to say, ‘At last? she got there. He made it despite the challenges. When will you get to the point where men will begin to make you their model and their point of reference for prayer requests? Etc. I think we need to stop discussing about successful people with so much passion and begin to ask ourselves ‘How did they get there? What were their failures and how did they react to it? What were their turning points? How are they still maintaining the top? What was their daily routine?  The fact is that, this people didn’t just get to where they are. They started somewhere. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a step. I believe some things contributed to their successful climb to the top and their perfect maintenance of their position. Now, what are those things?

 FAITH

Faith is having this strong persuasion that something that isn’t yet seen is going to come. Simply put, faith is the evidence of things not yet seen and assurance of things hoped for. If you don’t have faith, you can’t get anywhere. It is when you have faith that you can begin to make preparations for things you are hoping for. Faith attracts other virtues. Getting to the top or becoming successful in life, first of all requires faith. Achieving starts with believing.

 COMMITMENT

This is your ability to put everything you have into what you are doing no matter how difficult and unbearing it may prove to be. Simply put, you have to be committed. Commitment involves putting all of your time, skills, energy, and resources into whatever it is that you want to be successful on. You have to employ every (godly) means necessary to excel in whatever you do. If you are not committed to a cause, you easily get distracted and carried away. Small challenges come at you, and you are already giving up. So commitment is a necessary tool for attaining success.

DAILY ROUTINES

These are the things you commit yourself to do daily. Your daily routines are very important because they show who you really are and what you are likely going to be in the future. There must be some things you do daily that people around you knows about and can easily predict how you spend your time. For example, I do two most important things daily. It includes, praying at least 2times in a day and reading at least twice in a day (my bible and inspirational books). Other may include checking my mails and putting down anything that comes to my mind. The truth is, how you spend your daily life will tell on your personality and determines how far you go in life. Don’t just spend your day anyhow and most importantly, don’t spend your day without involving God. A day without God will be so messed up and the unexpected usually happens (talking from experience).

PERSEVERANCE

This simply means endurance. This is your ability to endure in any kind of pressure and weather. When you have the spirit of perseverance, nothing will make you give up so easily. You will be able to scale through every hurdles and difficulties you might encounter during your course of climbing up to the top. Perseverance comes when you are so sure of where you are going and when you are so committed to your course. The basic truth is, if you can’t persevere, believe me, you can’t go far. Obstacles will definitely come your way, distractions will come and at a point, you might feel like giving up, but the ability for you to forge ahead despite all that means you will definitely succeed. Trust me, you will get there. It’s just a matter of time.

ATTITUDE

Your attitude comprises of all I have been talking about. It determines your level of faith, determination, perseverance, daily routines and commitments. Whether you like it or not, your attitude is a very important factor that determines the level of your success or failure. When you have the right attitude, you are surely going to succeed but if you have the wrong attitude, it will be the other way round. A positive thinker will always have a positive result while a negative thinker will have the direct opposite. Our attitude has a way of telling others the kind of person we are. It also determines our rate of success or failures in life. Always remember, a bad attitude is like a flat tire. You can’t get anywhere without fixing it.

Other  factors may also have contributed to their successful climb to the top and of course their successful maintenance of the top but the ones highlighted above are very important  and I do hope we will begin to take them into consideration. Don’t get me wrong, there is definitely nothing wrong in talking about people you like because of their success, fame of popularity. All I’m saying is that, you shouldn’t let it become a habitual thing. Don’t let it get so much into your head that you spend most of your time monitoring their activities that you forget about your own purpose on earth. I bet they don’t even know you. I think it’s high time we stop pork nosing into other people’s affairs and start doing things that will attract men to us. Let men discuss about you too. You are also a human being like them. Why not read the biographies of those successful people you discuss with so much passion maybe you will see one or two things that will be relevant for your own journey to the top too. ‘Obstacles will definitely come your way, distractions will come and at a point, you might feel like giving up, but the ability for you to forge ahead despite all that means you have all it takes to succeed. Just maintain your trust in God together with your resolution, you will get there. It’s just a matter of time’

(Ciana Joy).