Sometime last year, the company I work for hosted a women’s day lunch for the ladies working in our department and invited a guest speaker to share some wisdom with the attendees. Firstly, I’d like to mention that the speaker was the youngest person in the room, merely aged 23 yet she blew our hats off when she began her talk. What stood out for me was the discussion around designing your own life and crafting your own story. Many people operate on autopilot, they wake up, go to work, get stuck in traffic, go home and repeat this five days a week. They wish their days away, counting down to the next weekend when they apparently “live” a little. Except, do they?
The speaker posed a question to the audience asking what percentage of ourselves the attendees brought to work every day. Many confessed to not bringing 100% of themselves daily, and this phenomenon is not unique to the group of ladies that was in the room that morning. Many people tend to just give enough of ourselves just to get by, not pushing boundaries or re-inventing themselves. They become comfortable with the status quo. And anyone who dares to go against the grain is met with apprehension as the majority have established a culture of complacency. Should this be the narrative? Should life not be about constantly reinventing oneself and growing with each experience?
Listening to the talk, I became inspired to dust off the things I’d put on the back burner and be a bit more aggressive about the attainment of my goals. I’m quite a driven individual but I know I haven’t been giving a 100% to the things that matter to me and now is the time to start doing just that. I don’t want my obituary one day to state: She lived and she died.
Every day presents itself as an opportunity to craft our reality anew and I want to create the best reality I can for myself. To learn, unlearn and re-learn… To fail fast and learn from my mistakes. And pursue my own goals and not spend the good years of my life working to fulfil someone else’s goals.
When we don’t knock on doors or pursue our dreams, we open ourselves up to disappointment and ultimately despondence. It is said that the difference between who you are right now and who you want to be is confidence and competence. Believe that you deserve that which you want to achieve and immerse yourself in the task of TAKING it, because that’s what winners do — take what they believe they deserve. At times we lose motivation along the way, but I vow to remind myself why I started and picture the end goal — this is a sure way to rekindle the fire. I plan to live my best life everyday. For tomorrow is not guaranteed to anyone, young or old alike.
It’s time to choose excellence in everything we do, be it at work or in our personal spaces. In everything you do, do it like you’ve only got one chance and perfect it. Luck after all is when preparation meets opportunity, and you want to be ready when the opportunity finds you, whatever it may be.
Originally published at medium.com