I had an early knack for writing and used to excel during my former academic years. However, as I grew older the interest receded into the background as I explored other avenues of earning a living. This can loosely be translated as I didn’t think much of the talent and sought to pursue a different career that capitalized on my affinity for numbers. By happenstance, I jotted down some thoughts not too long ago and my close friends were taken aback. They remarked to the effect that they did not know I was a talented writer and they egged me on to churn out more pieces. I was equally surprised and half-heartedly took up the challenge. It was akin to flying a plane without a destination. The leap of faith I took sparked up avenues and outlets.
Being an open book has advantages. However, it has its own drawback that is associated with the law of covetousness. People are naturally drawn to mystery since it piques their interest. Therefore, if all there is to be known about one is out in the open then their perceived value is diminished and they will be less sought after as a result thereof. In other words one will be least appealing for the most part and hence less coveted. There are of course exceptions to the rule but this holds true in far too many instances cutting across most spheres of life. Many a times we have heard the statements “I didn’t know you could do this” followed by “What else can you do besides this.” These are tell-tale signs that one is on the right track in as far as mastery of the law is concerned.
The deep desire to change our circumstances is deeply embedded in our psyche and is often times borne out of either boredom or is triggered by comparison. What others have that we lack seems appealing hence drives the need to acquire the same by any righteous means necessary. The green grass syndrome essentially captures the gist of this. The grass always appears to be greener on the other side of the fence. Therefore, its common place to encounter souls who are always on the move and never contented. Shifting goal posts characterize their lives in profound ways. Once a goal is met, hardly a minute or two is spent basking in the glory of success. The key to success lies in making good use of what we have as opposed to constantly striving for what is ever beyond our grasp.
Before the advent of GPS, navigating through uncharted territory had its own fair share of challenges. Missing an exit would get your heart pumping faster than a cheetah can run. More so if you happened to drive without company and had to rely on a map. Those not quite adept at multi-tasking had an even greater uphill task to grasp with. Such is the case I had to contend with one afternoon several years ago. I had moved to a new city and had barely settled in when I mustered the courage to venture out into a new area on the opposite end of town. It seemed way out there but I soon got to realize that it was much closer than I thought.
No sooner had I stepped into work that afternoon than my boss implored one of us to make a run to pick up something from a store that was scheduled to be closed within the next hour. In as much as I was unfamiliar with the area, I took up the challenge and once again took the leap of faith. Armed with the map and keys, barely a minute later I was on my way out. Had a beeper as well in case things went south. The first ten minutes or so were uneventful. Things got hazy later and as fate would have it, I missed an exit and appeared to head towards the city which had a notoriety for complicated driving. Maybe it seemed daunting because I lived in a smaller, less congested city before whose main streets were countable.
I switched off the radio so as to ‘see’ the road better and get good visuals since I seemed to have resigned to fate. As luck would have it, I spotted an alternative exit that took me through a longer scenic route that cut through a historical park which was the winter encampment site of the continental army during the American Revolutionary War. To cool my heels, I took a moment to savor the history and learn a thing or two since I had some minutes to spare. After the dust settled, I visited the place many times over thereafter. One ought to explore their local environment and the desire to visit exotic places will diminish. Taking the time out to exploit the area within reach might lead to the shocking discovery that there is a gold mine in your vicinity. If the need to visit exotic, far flung places is triggered by boredom it might cost you a fortune to derive the same pleasure as that you would have easily achieved in your neighborhood at a relatively low or no cost at all.
A former colleague once opened up to me and expressed his need to move into a different career owing to a myriad of reasons. His radical approach to the issue took me aback and I attempted to dissuade him from making such a move because the reasons did not warrant the radical approach. It was akin to decimating a housefly with a bullet from a rifle. In my humble submission, making a few changes and innovation to his current job ought to have done the magic. Convincing him otherwise was a tough sell and so the conversation drew to a close. Everyone was entitled to their own opinion and in this case, everyone kept theirs.
I ran into him one afternoon while running errands barely one year later. He looked like a pale shadow of his former self and almost hid when he caught a glimpse of me. Apparently, he moved to two other companies and each move did not give him the vertical leap he had anticipated. In any case, his progression dipped. I feared to disclose the leaps and bounds we had all made since then. Granted everyone’s situation is different and circumstances may not be the same, it might be best to err on the side of caution and make slight modifications in the current setup if motivation is all that is needed as opposed to engaging in a complete makeover where all the acquired experience goes to complete waste and you are as good as a new graduate with little experience in the new field. This is precisely what happened to him when he ventured into a new career. As it is with life in general, there is no one size fits all approach to issues. Let’s help each other learn shall we?
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