By Pearson Mbendera.
(News of The South) – We are all created for a reason. We all have something positive to contribute to this world. It’s in every one of us, but sometimes we don’t get to live up to what we are supposed to be. Maslow in his work on the hierarchy of needs wrote, “What a man can be, he must be.”
I know people who do not believe in fate, I don’t believe in fate myself, because believing in the force of predetermined events of our destiny somehow takes choices from us. Because fate, by definition means that the consequences are inevitably bound to happen, but its bot everyone who finds his or her purpose in life. But I believe that we have one purpose in life, it’s a different purpose from one person to the next, but we all got one. And by exercising our power of choice, and deciding what we really want in life and what we won’t settle for, we will end up travelling the path of our purpose.
The concept of purpose will scare most people because they will think that they will never like their purpose. I don’t know much about that, so I really don’t want to lie, but I believe self-fulfillment will only come when people end up being what they are supposed to be and not what they want to be, which may be in contrast to what they should be.
Abraham Maslow theorized the psychological concept of a hierarchy of needs, listing down the needs that humans require to live a satisfactory life. He wrote the in a pyramid, with the need at the top, self-actualization being the most important of them all followed by ego/esteem needs.
At self-actualization stage, a person would have realized his or her full potential. Many people won’t get that far because they get stuck at satisfying their esteem needs, which by definition comes from feeling respected, accepted and valued by others.
Truth is, you can satisfy your esteem needs by being someone you are not destined to be. People don’t usually judge you for who you are supposed to be because they don’t know that much about you (well most people don’t know who they are supposed to be) but they will still give you the respect that what you have achieved will entail to you.
It is one thing finding success in what you do, it’s something totally different finding your purpose. Success can come from doing about anything in life, but your purpose doesn’t lie in unlimited choices life may throw your way.
The concept of finding one’s purpose in life is one that isn’t encouraged much. People know sure ways to succeed and be achieve something out of life, that’s all most people care about. Whether you are fulfilled is a totally different issue. Be this or be that, is what people will tell you, no one will care if it’s your purpose in life.
Forget about what people think, making them happy won’t mean you will be happy too. Forget about the path they want you to take, you might succeed, but if it’s not for you, it will never matter anyway what you do or what you accomplish. Make it your goal to find what is truly yours, whatever it is, if it has your name on it, success will only be a bonus, otherwise working up every day and knowing what you have in store will be enough for you.
Find your purpose today; don’t spend the rest of your life trying to be what you are not created for. Stop trying to be an outer extension of your own idea, be authentically you. There is no need to try hard to embody the figment image of your own imagination, you are better than that.
Comments
About Author
