N. F. Kenure
Not all of us laid out plans, goals or yardsticks for personal success as youths. Some people are lucky enough to identify at some point in their lives, what they want to be. For many, it's a broad image lacking details of the finer details. With a sprinkling of luck and perseverance, they can squint hard enough to see a future they want to carve for themselves.
I've always felt that these are the luckiest people on earth. To identify and choose a path must be extremely liberating, leaving no time to flail around with life’s inanities.
I never came across any life styles, careers or ambitions that I wanted for myself. Never thought, this is what I want to do or be. I did think that I would own or run or home for children after I become rich, but there was never a concrete plan or pathway to making this money for myself in my mindseye. I figured, like everyone around me, I would join the rat race right after university, get a job good enough to complain about on the weekends but run right back to, come Monday morning. Because I was a big reader and talker, everyone pointed me towards reading Law. But nothing grinds my gears more than having to do, or the phrase, that's the way it's always been. I don't like rules and so I'll give myself credit for knowing at registration that Law was not for me.
Still, some people find who they were meant to be in these random jobs. If I had begun a job in say, Customer service at a bank, or as a Business relationship co-ordinator at a telecommunication organisation, what natural flairs of mine would have helped me climb up the corporate ladder? A friend of mine only knew she wanted a corporate job. There wasn't a particular field of interest for her. She would talk about wearing pencil skirts and going to meetings at a job. Any job, she didn't know or care what it was. The imagery of what she wanted for herself was clear in her head. Today I watch her excel and enjoy her job as a tax consultant.
My husband, a stickler for rules, guidelines and gameplans, had the most detailed plan of everything he ever wanted to achieve and is lucky (very lucky) to have checked them all off his mental list in more ways than he could ever dream.
So, what do you do when you get to the top of the mountain? How does it feel? I wouldn't know. I'm still working out what I want. But what I've seen from watching these two people is that the race is never done. For those who achieve success and for the ones still at varied rungs of life.
The truth, in my estimation is, there is no THE END sign at the point where all your desires have been met. It is also very unlikely that there is the euphoria of running up your own Rocky Steps right before you overcome one last obstacle. And when it’s all done, and you can finally check the last goal off your life’s to do list, there will be no rolling of credits showing all the the things you did right, and the people who helped get you to that point where you always wanted to be.
Life goes on until it doesn't, with new unforseen limitations and curveballs, every one of them scheming to tear you down. Some people will strike out at some point in spite of well laid out plans, while others swinging wildly, will bat a thousand.
May 20, 2019
