I remember when I was in Primary 2 (Grade 2), we had to use pencils to take notes and I wanted so badly to move to Primary 3 (Grade 3) so I could use a pen!
Fast forward to when I was in junior secondary school (Middle school) when I couldn’t wait to get rid of the pinafore dress which the juniors wore, to wear to skirts! Which was what the girls in high school wore!
In retrospect, those were amazing ‘milestones’ I couldn’t wait to check off! Which presently carry very little value in the grand scheme of my life. But at the moment, nothing else mattered!
As life progressed, other things became more significant; like earning a career as an IT professional because I wanted to be an accomplished graduate with a fancy LinkedIn title (Comment below if you can relate). I bagged the degree and the certification, worked, cried and prayed to get a role in the field of my dreams and reached the peak of where I could get to and I expected to feel some kind of high!
But I didn’t..
Don’t get me wrong, I was excited, proud and content but it felt like something was missing. And before you say husband and children; I was already married to my heartthrob and pregnant with our first baby.
So, what else could a girl want right?
I saw this post on LinkedIn which perfectly described what I was missing:
We often measure success by how much we earn, what job titles we have, our marital status, the size of our homes, etc.
But I could be in my dream home but struggle to pay the mortgage because I didn’t anticipate the crazy increase in interest rates or I could have my dream job but not be challenged by what I’m doing which was certainly the case for me.
To get out of the rot I was in, I had to revaluate my definition of success by discovering other core values I have and ensuring that I was focusing my energy on those as well. For instance, in addition to focusing on career, another value of mine could be self-care, that would mean spending time shopping, at the spa etc.
This year, I challenge you to discover what success means to YOU, not your friends or family or what the common trend is.
Also remember that your worth is not defined by success or even your failures. Your true worth is determined by your creator, who looked at you when he made you and saw that you were very good and called you his masterpiece! (Genesis 1:31, Ephesians 2:10)
God bless you,
Akhere
