You’re One in a Lifetime – Be Yourself

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Do you know that just like your fingers, your tongue has its own unique print, which is different from anyone else’s in the world? DNA profiling has revealed that there is one individual in a trillion people. Studies have shown that all human beings are unique.

Be yourself and stop copying and competing with others. However, no matter how hard you try to change your personality, you can’t. A sound Congolese adage says, “Wood may remain ten years in the water, but it will never become a crocodile.”

You are the only person in the whole world that has your distinct attributes. So, you should stand out and not blend in. A copycat adapts himself to the world while an original adapts the world to himself. Be thyself.

Originality is derived from the root word original. The word original itself has its ancestry from the Latin word ořigō meaning to arise or be born. Originality is the quality of being new and interesting in a way that is different from anything that has existed before. Personally, I define originality as origin plus acceptability. This implies accepting your social and family background.

Your origin is your ancestry, your foundation, your source and where you sprang forth from. God has launched you where you are; it is your personal responsibility to launch yourself and your heritage to the world.

In construction, the higher a building will be, the deeper the foundation. In agriculture, the deeper the root, the huger the tree is. This truism signifies that the more you know about your personality, the better you can take the optimum advantage of your one shot at life.

The creator of man has fashioned him and placed him where He wants him to be. We had no power to determine the family we were born into, we just found ourselves in that family and it is left for us to accept it and be proud of the family or act otherwise.

A myriad of people are not contented with the family they automatically found themselves in. They wish it should have been a better family than what they see in terms of wealth, power, influence and other values. They are disturbed so much about this issue that, if possible, they would have changed their family, but it is not.

Sometimes, life could be quite unfair. Right from infancy, life throws challenges at us! Some have both parents, while others have lost one or both quite early in life. Some have a humble background while some have it all rosy. We really do not have choices where life places us.

This is the more reason we must endeavour to wise up to life early and accept our origin, in order to be able to remain on top of situations. The earlier, the better – if not in our teenage years, then in our early adulthood. We must challenge life equally by accepting who we are, our family background and deciding to make it better than the way we met it. Thus, the future of our lives and our families is in our hands; we can make it better not only for ourselves but also for our unborn generations.

A number of people spend their entire lives trying to change the way they were fashioned. American poet E.E. Cummings said, “To be nobody but yourself, in a world which is doing its best, day and night, to make you everybody else ‒ means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting.” The greatest tragedy that can strike an individual is to fail to accept his origin and not be original.

The curious paradox is that when you are authentic, you can never be a shadow. All good things, which exist, are the fruit of originality. Note that the original remains intact after the photocopy might have become faded.

It will do you much good, if you absolutely accept where God fixed you in life and work diligently to make the optimum use of the position. Then, your story can be an inspiration to others beyond our generation.

You are number one. No one else in this world can be you, because you are unique, special and one in a lifetime. You are invaluable, inestimable, important, significant and useful to the world. Be original. Be yourself.

ACTION PLAN: Introduce yourself by yourself to yourself. Accept who you are. Be proud of who you are. Believe in yourself. Celebrate your uniqueness.

AFFIRMATION: I am unique, special and one in a lifetime. I am blessed and highly favoured.