Anyone (especially females) who rock short hair can tell you how traumatic it can be when one goes to the barber to get a hair cut only for the barber to cut the hair wrong. In most cases, to camouflage the bad hair cut, one goes looking for a headscarf, a bandana, a cap, a hat or whatever headgear they can place their hands on in order to hide the shame. Sometimes some people look like a badly sculptured image. The consolation is that eventually, the hair does grow back. The only thing is that one would be crazy to go back to that same sculptor; sorry, I meant barber for the next hair cut.
Speaking of sculpturing, have you ever wondered how they (sculptors) come up with the things they create? How does one look at a log of wood and conclude that it is possible to make a giraffe or a monkey from that log? Or, how does one look at a huge lump of stone/rock and decide that they will create a statue from that shapeless lifeless mound of stone? When I think of stuff like that, I realize that everyone has their own calling; the sculptor will see a statue in every rock/stone, while I will see a nice comfy place where I can perch my behind while reading a book.
Indeed, like Michelangelo said, “every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.”
I don’t mean to call you a rock or a stone but you know something, every one of us is a potential “statue” i.e. a potential piece of art. According to the dictionary, a statue is a carved or cast figure of a person or animal, especially one that is life-size or larger. Key word: carved. What does it mean to carve? There are about three dictionary meanings but I’d like to focus on this one: cut (a hard material) in order to produce an object, design, or inscription. Key words: cut a hard material.
We (you and I) are all hard materials. We have things in us that need to be cut out so as to reveal the true “statue” that is in each one of us. You could be the statue of leadership, but in order to be an effective leader there are some things that need to be cut off from you. Such things might be ego, greed, corruption, anger, pride, among other negative character traits that might cause your statue to look deformed and repulsive instead of attractive and appreciation worthy.
Maybe you were born to be a football player but have not been able to get to that level of being a professional player because of certain things that need to be cut off from you. Such things could be the fact that you don’t want to push yourself hard during practice, or you think you know better than your coach every time he tells you to do something. Could be you think you are better than the rest of the players because you had a chance to play a friendly match with a renowned football team. Whatever the case or cause, in order for you to attain that level of attractiveness, that level of famousness that will bring people from all over the world to just take photos with you like in the case of the statue of Liberty, there will be areas of your life that will need to be removed from you.
I is possible that someone is reading this right now and still hasn’t gotten the gist of what I’m trying to say; let me use less parable-like examples.
I have said this many times and I will say it again today that each one of us has a very specific purpose to fulfill here on earth. None of us was born without a purpose, or a specific role to fulfill here on earth. Unfortunately many people are roaming the streets of earth purposeless and goalless because they have no idea why they are here. Why is this the case one might ask? Well, finding out ones purpose is not an easy task, neither is it a one-day thing. One has to intentionally determine that they will find out what their purpose in life is. Another thing is that many lack the patience to find out, and the resilience to work on themselves in order to fit into their purpose.
The thing is, it takes years to get prepared for your purpose on earth. It is during that preparation time that many people give up. Preparation is never easy my friends. It calls for many changes in life in order to create the person you were meant to be. Such changes always include making tough choices such as what kind of friendships to move away from and which ones to keep; it includes what activities to engage in and which ones to leave out; it includes what new things you need to learn and which ones you need to unlearn. It definitely involves moving from your current comfort zone into another zone all together and when you get too comfortable in that new zone then you are moved to yet another zone.
This process is like what happens when a sculptor is busy trying to look for a statue in a formless stone. He has a mental picture of what he wants to create from the stone and as he painstakingly chips off the unwanted parts, the image or statue starts appearing with every removed chip.
Earlier on I said we are like formless stones. Besides being “formless stones” waiting to be sculptured, we are also the sculptors responsible for creating our own statues, and as I just mentioned, before a scultptor can sculpt anything s/he needs to have a mental image of what the statue will be like in the end. Question is, what mental image of yourself do you have, if at all you even have one? When you think about yourself twenty years from today, what image of yourself do you want to see? In order to see that image, what parts of yourself do you need to chip off gradually until you get to that image?
Unless you have an idea of who you are, you will never live up to your full potential. That is why this week, for the #52BooksIn52Weeks2018 Book Reading Challenge, I am recommending two books in relation to today’s article; The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho or A New Earth – Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose by Eckhart Tolle. Get a copy of both or either of these two books and learn the different ways you can identify what you were created on earth for.
Lastly, I’d like to point out something that I feel so strongly I should say today. It does not matter what negative stuff you have been told by people in your life or around your environment. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and you cannot control what people think about you or say to and/ or about you. What matters is how you respond to what they say; do you agree with them or do you maintain the mental image of yourself that you have for yourself?
The danger of not having a positive mental image of yourself is that whatever you are told by anyone who is filled with negativity and evil thoughts, that is what you will believe even when it is not true. That is why this week I am encouraging everyone reading this article to take some time to think about the mental image of yourself you have. You are the sculptor of your life, and if you don’t have a mental image of what you want to create in life, or if you have the wrong mental image of yourself then your statue will reflect this.
Again, to quote Michelangelo, “I saw the angel in the marble and I chiseled until I set it free”.
You have an angel inside your marble (you) waiting to be chiseled out.
Be ignited. Be inspired. Be influenced. Become the best version of yourself you can ever be.
PS: This article was originally published in Tanzania's Guardian On Sunday on the 11th of February, 2018, under my weekly column "Thoughts in Words".
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