‘‘The heart of human excellence often begins to beat when you discover a pursuit that absorbs you, frees you, challenges you, or gives you a sense of meaning, joy, or passion’’ -Terry Orlick

Life is not a summer holiday for sightseeing, window-shopping, relaxing by the beach, marking time; neither is it an escape to a romantic wonderland hoping to have a good time doing nothing constructive or life transforming until you return to your regular busy life.

Similarly, life is not an audition to try out your luck to be nominated. Life is a real deal! You do not get to live it twice; you have only one shot at it and when you miss it, you are bound to find yourself in the trenches of misery or the hamlet of meaninglessness.

Hence, rise up above your limitations, fears, and the demands of life to declare by your deeds and actions your mission in this life-journey!

You are on a womb-to-tomb expedition to greatness, carrying something valuable and life-changing inside you to make this world a better place than you found it. So do not just cruise through life when you have “something to declare”.  American writer, and a long-time contributor to The New Yorker magazine, Elwyn Brooks White, confessed, “I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”

We all face this dilemma in life; often you feel like taking the back seat in life just to enjoy the fruits of other people’s gifts, purposes, and calling but when you are full of “good goods,” you have no choice than to declare them—and every person (you included) is full of these valuable goods which they must declare.

I concur with American businesswoman and founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics, Inc., Mary Kay Ash who said, “There are three types of people in this world: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened.” There are certain people you come across in life who you can just tell are living in the “parked lane” on the highway of life. They have nothing prolific, thrilling, or purposeful going on in their lives. Interestingly, these individuals are the ones who normally shoot down people’s ideas for the sake of not exposing their lack of direction and purpose in life. The following poem by Mother Teresa beautifully illustrates the essence of a useful life:

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.  Life is beauty, admire it. Life is bliss, taste it. Life is a dream, realize it. Life is a challenge, meet it. Life is a duty, complete it. Life is a game, play it. Life is a promise, fulfill it. Life is sorrow, overcome it.  Life is a song, sing it. Life is a struggle, accept it. Life is a tragedy, confront it. Life is an adventure, dare it. Life is luck, make it. Life is too precious, do not destroy it. Life is life, fight for it.

We are all carrying precious gifts, ideas, and abilities so significant for the development of this world and the people in it. It is important to understand that not all of us would be recognised or noticed publicly for our contribution to humanity but regardless you have to give your best in whatever you find yourself doing. In the words of Mother Teresa “not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”

As a young man migrating to the United Kingdom to further my studies, I ran into complications with immigration officers at London’s Heathrow airport owing to my ignorance of the immigration protocol to declare the cash and other items I was carrying with me. With my luggage in hand, I approached the immigration check point at the Heathrow Airport. There I noticed two separate passages. One was captioned “something to declare” and the other “nothing to declare.” Since I had no clue of what those signs meant, I just headed straight to the “nothing to declare” passage.

As soon as I came through “nothing to declare,” I noticed two gentlemen dressed in mufti attires coming towards me. They eventually approached me, requested for my travelling documents and escorted me to a secluded room for interrogation. After the long interrogation, they threw me into a small detention room and held me there for over eight hours while they scrutinize my travelling documents and my contacts in the United Kingdom. In the end, it was a phone call made to the Dean of the department of the university I was going to attend that saved me from expatriation.

The journey of life in so many ways is akin to traveling through the immigration of a country. Your entrance into life requires you to declare your ‘assets’ - gifts, talents, abilities, calling, and purpose on this planet before you exit. Failure to do so would result in a lot of complications, frustrations, and misery like my experience with the British immigration.

Could it be that most people are struggling in life because they have not declared their assets or refused to declare their assets? It impossible to enter into the land of greatness without properly declaring your goods. Please, if you want to live a meaningful, significant, and fulfilling life then seriously consider declaring your calling, natural endowment, and gifts. English artist, Charles Mayes advised, “Make sure the thing you are living for is worth dying for.”

After years of going through the immigration of different countries, I noticed three remarkable, basic, and conventional questions at every immigration checkpoint. Incidentally, these questions are also principles applicable in declaring your “goods” in life:

-Where have you been? — This is the background check question: What have you been doing with your life up until now? Who have you associated yourself with? What are your experiences in life? These are among some of the questions you must answer if you are seriously going to declare your purpose.

Note: There are certain people you cannot associate yourself with if you are to declare your purpose, likewise, not all activities would be conducive for you on this journey. There would be loved ones and well-meaning people you would have to leave behind, and seemingly good programmes and activities you would have to excuse yourself from if you really mean business. I cannot seem to wrap my mind around the fact that most people in life want to get ahead or be significant but are busy socializing day in and day out with the wrong people; milling about doing all sort of things that are not in line with their destination in life. 

When you are going on a journey, you only join people and vehicles heading your way. Your association inevitably and ultimately determines your destination in life. In other words, who you hang around with sends a subliminal message of your purpose and focus in life.

-Why are you here? — This is the purpose question. People avoid this question in life because it appears expose their unfruitfulness and displacement in life. Life is not about speed but direction and focus, not activities and busyness but purpose and meaning, and not about success but significance. There is nothing wrong in discovering that you are on the wrong path. What is wrong is walking in that path after you have discovered that is not the right path.

Majority of people hide behind social activities, work, etc (including religious programmes) just to avoid confronting this question. Some also resort to drugs, alcohol, and other self-destructive behaviors in their fear to confront the purpose question.

If you take a survey, asking people what they think their assignment or calling in life is, you would notice that most people have a fair idea about what they are assigned to do in life. But it is the courage, belief, and the tenacity to step into action to become what they are predestined to be that draws them back.

Author and motivational speaker, Anthony Robbins believes that, “Most people fail in life because they major in minor things.” On the flip side, i would also say, most people fail in life because they minor in major things in life. They spend countless time doing what they are not wired for in life while omitting their true calling.

I always advise people to learn how to spend time alone because it is when you are by yourself that you discover certain things about you that would never have come to light when you are busy running around with others. It is also when you are alone that you often can hear the Almighty direct your path in life.

-Where are you going? — This is the vision question: Where are you heading in life? What are your aspirations, goals, and plans? You cannot truly answer this question until you have dealt with the purpose question. Vision stems from purpose. If you do not know why you are here, you would not definitely know where you are going. American author, political activist, lecturer, and the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree, Helen Adams Keller when asked what would be worse than being blind responded, “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”

Sight without vision is like being on a journey without a destination. Regrettably, that is how life is for most people in this world. They are so busy but no results, rich but meaningless, successful but not significant, educated but irrelevant. The conundrum of a visionless individual or society is what Mohandas Karamachand Gandhi describes as: Seven Deadly Sins: Wealth without Work, Pleasure without Conscience, Science without Humanity, Knowledge without Character, Politics without Principle, Commerce without Morality, Worship without Sacrifice.

When you are convinced of your destination in life, you become relaxed, focused, purposeful, full of vitality, and lively. Someone once said, “You may not always end up where you thought you were going, but you will always end up where you were meant to be”.

In her book, A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles, Marianne Williamson challenged us all to open up and declare our assignments on earth by saying:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

May you find the understanding, wisdom, and audacity to accept who we were created to be in spite of the challenges associated with declaring what we are carrying on the journey of life! “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years,” Abraham Lincoln. Similarly, author Al Sharpman maintained that, “Better to die of something than to die in old age of nothing”.Discover Your Greatness!