By Pearson Mbendera
Many times we live life based on rules some other people followed to get to where they are. They did well for themselves and it’s because of that, that they are relevant. People are so eager to know what the greats are doing and so many times you hear a lot of stories about the successful people and what they would do in a certain situation. Their lives and how they respond to situation is like the new ‘Bible’ people use to live their lives. I have read a lot of stories about them, when there is a financial crisis and you would hear them say, what Buffet would do, what Soros would do. Because people have hypothesized so much about how things should be done based on how some who accomplished something have done it.
Many people are stuck at jobs that don’t give them any satisfaction, tied down to situations they don’t want to be in and yet have forgotten that they have the power to turn things around, they just need to set themselves free from all the chains that binds them.
It’s not really a bad thing. We need to learn from the best and sometimes that’s the best way of doing it. But just because you believe it can be done in a different way than the way someone famous and powerful has done it before doesn’t mean you are stupid, just because you want to do it differently and in your won original way doesn’t make you a crazy person. And for that reason, I believe its time you declare your won independence.
If you are tired of abiding to societies rules that you don’t believe in anymore and have outgrown the culture of worshiping the famous and powerful just because of who they are then you are the person I am talking to. It’s time to try a different angle, take a new path towards your destiny.
But what does being independent mean?
To most Africans, the concept of independence is well understood from how we regained control of our nations from the colonial rule of the Europeans. That’s how we gained our ‘independence’ and started ruling ourselves the way we see fit. Whether we are good at that or not, is a topic for another discussion, but independence was when we placed our future in our own hands and declared ourselves masters of our own destiny.
The same principle of independence can be taken to individual terms and one can declare his or her own independence and be the master of his or her self’s destiny. To say that your life will only move in the direction you want it too and no one has a say that bigger than yours, then you are independent.
But it is a scary thing to do because some take it as shutting other people out of your life. It’s not. It’s just a way of bringing in people when it is worthy it and knowing what kind of a role they are supposed and putting boundaries on what they can do and what they cant. All countries have borders that mark the territorial control, and within those borders, a country is as free as it likes to do anything it deems necessary, and that’s the definition of independence.
In the end, life is not all about things working out. It’s about knowing that you had control over what happens to you. There is so much we can’t control in life, our birth date, family, and the day we die, that’s all beyond our control. But how we live of life is something we can control.
Someone once said, “We feel free when we jump, even if is from the frying pan into the fire.” And that’s true about our lives, its knowing that even as we go down in flames, we are still calling the shots. And only by living independently can we find happiness. Isn’t it better to try something and fail but knowing you were doing what you wanted to do, than to have everything at your disposal when what you have isn’t what you want at all, but what some else dictated for you. Because at the end, he who has something he doesn’t want, is far worse than he who tried to get what he wanted and failed. Taking the lessons of failure gained aside, he who, failed at least has some closure on what it feels like going after what you desire.
So go ahead and declare your independence, be free to do anything your heart desires. Have your own destiny in your own hands, and you might not end up with the most things in life, but you will most certainly end up with everything you need.
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