YOU CAN BE ANYTHING YOU CHOOSE TO BE

by Omolara Aduke | Jan 7, 2021 | Career, Lifestyle

You can be anything you choose to be.

That’s a statement that resonated in my mind back in the latter months of 2015, and it still does. I was going through some rough patches, academic challenges precisely, and I was losing the battle in my mind. Should I quit or should I keep going, to what end is this, can I do it, is it worth it? I had questions I couldn’t get answers to at the time… Or, let me say, I got answers, but just wasn’t convinced by them.

I had developed the fear of dropping out of school and serious low self-esteem because I felt I wasn’t good enough to cope through school. For someone who had always excelled academically until university came, that was not a terrain I knew how to navigate. So, I withdrew into myself, instead of dealing with my fear and seeking help. I succumbed to the notion that I just wasn’t bright enough to cope in my department, not to think of excelling there.

I can’t remember exactly where or how the words came to reiterate in my mind, it’s probably something I had heard repeatedly from one of the biggest influence in my life or something I had picked from constant reading of inspirational books. Either way, I’m indebted to those words. “You can be anything you choose to be.”

They played in my mind so much that it became a mantra for me at the time. I personalized it. Yeah.

It not only encouraged me, but it also pushed me. It instilled the energy I needed to forge ahead.

I can be anything I chose to be. I can do anything I chose. I can learn anything I want. 

Understanding it in the light of the scriptures, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13), fired it up in my spirit.

While setbacks or failures tend to make us doubt our abilities and capacity for success, understanding that life is a process would better equip us with the confidence to forge ahead despite the hard knocks.

We have all it takes to get started in the direction of our choosing. Dr. Suess reiterates this in his words, “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.”  So, you’ve got the brain, use it. You’ve got the eye, use it. You’ve got hands and legs, use it. We got all it takes to be all we choose to be. 

Finally, Steve Harris, the Nigerian Life and Business Strategist, has a popular saying that, “it’s not what you do not have that limits you, it is what you have but do not know how to use.” We have what we can use to get started in the direction of our dreams, we only need to realize what we have already and then learn to use them to achieve our goals.

There is no stopping a mind that is made up. So, decide what you want. What do you need to do to get to the destination of your choice? What do you need to learn, what habit do you need to cultivate, what attitude do you need to hold and live by and who do you need to meet and talk to? 

Take the necessary action towards your dream. 

You can achieve whatever goal you set your mind to.