But whenever the opportunity for me to act on my ambitions presented itself, I always seemed to conjure up the perfect excuse, " I'm too young.... I'm female - I don't stand a chance in a world that's practically run by men... I'm an African... The economy's bad right now, maybe next year..." and on and on.
After several tiresome years of applauding other people's successes, I learned the following lessons:
1. Make full use of all the opportunities and resources that are available to you.
You have a dream of making it big in Sports, Music or Business? Try out for your School's Football or Athletics team. Join the Church choir. Take part in community initiatives and use the experience to expand your skill-set.
Remember,this is YOUR dream. It's up to YOU to make things happen. Like my favorite quote goes,"If you don't build your dream, someone else will hire you to build theirs."
2. Do at least one thing each day to get yourself closer to your dream.
Record a Demo CD. Hold a cake sale to raise funds for that big project. Send a few of your best literary works to a number of magazines and newspapers. Work on perfecting your craft, be it baking, hair-dressing, fashion design or dance.
Always keep in mind that there are three groups of people in life - Those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who ask, "What happened?" Which one are you?
3. Get rid of limiting attitudes and mentalities.
*Forget fear. It's better to do it afraid than not to do it at all. Most of today's legends were petrified at some point but pursued their dreams anyway. No guts,no glory!
*Dispose of the belief that things must always be done in the same way. Think outside the box. Be adventurous and open your mind to new possibilities.
My parents are Pastors at a local Church, and have recently been struggling with a drop in Church attendance by members, despite the red-hot Sermons,personal visits to members' homes and so forth.
Finally, one of the leaders came up with a radical idea. "Instead of simply preaching to the people, let's go out there and reach out to them in a way they can relate to. Let's organize Barbeques for the men, Pampering sessions for the ladies and Sporting events for the youth."
The suggestion was initially met with a variety of negative reactions, ranging from sheer disgust to downright disapproval by some of the more conservative members of our Church committee. "Are you out of your mind? Where's the money for all that going to come from? Besides, Barbeques and Pampering Sessions don't sound very spiritual - are you trying to turn the Church into some sort of Leisure Center?", they bickered.
Anyway, we had our very first Ladies Pampering Session today, where a group of cheery volunteers gave free massages, manicures and warm hugs to ladies of all ages, shapes and sizes.
I caught a glimpse of skeptical Mrs Jones wearing a Cheshire Cat smile as she was treated to a luxurious shoulder massage and had her nails painted with hot pink varnish. She quickly wiped the animated grin off her face the moment she saw me looking.
Well, everyone had an awesome time and the event was a huge success. To top it all off,we managed to achieve our best attendance in years!
Now that the Ladies' Get- Together is done and dusted, I am pouring my energies into a number of personal projects, working towards my dreams, one day at a time.
Tomorrow at Church I'll be singing one of my compositions for the very first time. The nerves are killing me but there's no room for anymore excuses. The best in life is waiting!
Til next time; Live, Laugh, Love, Learn!
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