I was never really a popular child in school. I
was not weird enough to get totally ignored, but I didn’t really fit in.
I initially went to a predominantly Asian school, then was transferred
to a predominantly indigenous one and soon after to a boarding school in
the interior of our beautiful country.
The adjustment from the culture in one school to
another did not come easily. I took a while to make friends and stuck
out like a sore thumb.
The farther I get from those early days, the more I
realise that life in the real world is a lot like school. We have the
popular kids who generally know it all — or at least they think they do.
Then we have those who simply need attention, and the people that no
one ever notice.
I made some major mistakes as I moved from school
to school in an effort to fit in. I tried to act like the “popular
people.” But the popular people’s outfit did not fit me very well so I
kept on trying out different ones.
The costume that finally fitted me best is the one
I had not noticed I was wearing the whole time— that of a smart
student, a hard worker and now the assertive entrepreneur and personal
development coach. That’s me.
When I finally figured out I could simply do away
with all the shenanigans and wear my natural outfit, I faced the next
issue; my outfit “adventure” was over. Now all that was left was hard
work as myself — within my natural outfit.
Its difficult to get anywhere if you spend all
your time looking for suitable outfits. You only start making progress
when you finally pick out the natural one and start “doing the work
required to make your outfit the best it can be.
Soon, your work begins to speak for itself. You
start to receive recognition for the outfit that you wear most
naturally. You are in your element when you put it on and your best
traits effortlessly come to the fore.
That’s when others start calling you “great”,
“fantastic”, “wonderful”, “genius” and so on. They think you had some
secret to success. But the secret is to understand your purpose.
Each one of us has specific talents and gifts that
are uniquely coded within our DNA.. As we go through life, we discover
what we are good at. It is not by chance that we pick up the things we
like doing.
Our unique gifts are hard-wired into our systems
just as surely as our hearts are given their blueprint to pump blood.
And it is from these specific talents and gifts that we define and
determine our definite purpose.
What you have is unique. It is even quite
possible that what you have to offer has not ever been duplicated . This
purpose is indeed serious business. It’s the key piece in your success
jigsaw.
If you fail to determine your definite purpose,
nothing else fits. It is like using the wrong map to get to your
destination. You are moving in some direction thinking you’re making
progress only to realise you were going southwards when you should have
been going north.
Without your purpose firmly identified, you will
wander through life never quite feeling that you’re in the flow. It is
imperative to recognise what it is you’re good at — what you really love
to do. Your purpose in this lifetime is to do the thing that you love.
Most people tell me they already know what they’re
good at, but what they love to do most will never earn them any money.
This is the reason artists wear accountants’ outfits, sportsmen wear
marketers’ outfits and musicians wear ill-fitting doctors’ masks. They
are utterly miserable in thinking they would never earn any money living
on purpose.
Forget about what everyone else thinks and says, You can earn
money at anything. Once you determine your purpose, you won’t even have
to think hard about how to earn money —you will be guided by an unseen
hand, leading you in the right direction. Everything will fall into
place.
The key to your life is not that you settle for
the “safe” thing that you think will bring in the money. The key is to
turn around and do what you really love. That’s your life or purpose.
Understand that when you discover your purpose,
you serve it. By serving it, you solve real problems for real people.
When you do this long enough, you truly make a difference. That’s what
the world calls VALUE. That’s what the world will pay for.
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