Live Your Life By a Compass Not a Clock.

A friend who has just finished law school, felt time had passed him by and now needs speed to catch up with his mates who had left him behind during his days of trying to get admission into the university. When you spend 3years waiting for that elusive admission into the university, you sometimes feel that you have been dealt  a slow hand by the marker and all you can think of his how to bridge the gap and catch up.

The society on the other hand does not make it easy too. Social network and various technology advancements has made it so easy to keep in touch. You are flashed with the images of that your friend as she dedicates her 2nd child, when not even a dog is asking you out talk less of a man. You receive house warming invitations from friends when you are still living with a relative. You don’t even want to check your Instagram page where your friends are busy sharing pictures of their first class experience from Lagos to Dubai and you are still using CHISCO for your intercity adventures. Hope you get the picture.

It is so easy to think you have been dealt a slow hand from your maker. So you decide to speed things up. You switch from living your life by a compass to living by a clock. Your choices are no longer based on the direction and dream you want, but on the easiest path for you to rejoin the group that has left you behind.

But the question is this, did they really leave you behind? That is a question for another blog post.

Can I tell you a secret? In life you will always be behind someone and in front of someone else. Life will never be a race, there is no one keeping scores of who comes first and who comes last. Change your mentality about it. Stop thinking there is an acceptable time in relation to others to buy a car, get a Job, own a house etc. 

The truth is this, there is no fixed time or date to accomplish anything in life. As much as it is good to join your peers as they grow and pass through life huddles, when it is not happening for you, don’t fall into depression and start to compare. This is the reason we all do things we regret at the long run because we somehow think someone is watching and keeping score.

A clock is a tool that does not offer direction, it only tells you the time. On the other hand a compass is a tool that points to a specific direction irrespective of the time of the day or the situation around it.

My dear live by a compass. Let every decision you make be in constant alignment with your goals, plans and vision (your true north). It might make you look slow in the beginning because you are not treading a common path, but you are not slow because you are creating your own future by design. And in time you will see that living by compass will give you more fulfillment and wealth than living by a clock.

A group of 90year old living in an elders community, was asked individually what their biggest regret about life was? Most of their answers could be summarized to mean that they did not pursue their dreams and goals, they just let life happen to them instead of living by design.

So what are my dreams? What are my goals? Are my daily choices and activities getting me closer or father away from them? If so I need to pause, pull out my compass (your dreams and goals), and check my alignment as regards to them. If I am off track I just need to reverse but if I am on track then it’s all systems go. Living by a compass helps making decisions easy, because you already know which way you should be headed, which is why the holy book says “Without a vision my people cast of restrain”.

                               Don’t let life happen to you, live by design.