YOU CAN ONLY FEATURE IN THE FUTURE YOU PICTURE

My pastor always says, ‘if you can see it, then you can have it’ and no doubt; this is absolutely true. Before anything can become, you must first give birth to it within for it to manifest on the outside. While going through LIB, I came across a letter Oprah Winfrey wrote to her 19 year-old-self titled “The beautiful brown-skinned girl”. It was really inspiring that at 19 she could picture the kind of future she wanted and even though she faced tough times, she still had a clear picture of being a successful woman. Read the letter below.

Dear beautiful brown-skinned girl,

I look into your eyes and see the light and hope of myself. In this photo you are just about to turn 20, posing outside the television station where you were recently hired as a reporter. You’re proud of yourself for getting the job, but uncertain you’ll be able to manage all your college classes before 1 and arrive at the station by 1:30 for a full day’s work. Even so, your biggest concern is how to manage your love life with Bubba. Yes, you are dating someone named Bubba

Oprah & her 19-year-old-self

On this day you’ve brought him to the station to see where you work, hoping he’ll be proud, too. He seems less than impressed. The truth is, he’s intimidated. You don’t know this, though, because you can see yourself only through his eyes. A lesson you will have to learn again and again: to see yourself with your own eyes, to love yourself from your own heart.You’ve spent too many days and years trying to please others and be what they wanted you to be. You will have to learn that the wounds of your past—rape, molestation, whippings for “stepping out of place,” and not being allowed to show anger or cry afterward—damaged your self-esteem. Yet through it all, you’ve held on to a belief in God and God’s belief in you.That will be your single greatest gift: knowing there is a power greater than yourself and trusting that Force to guide you.

The trajectory of your life changed the day you answered the call from Chris Clark, the news director at WLAC-TV. Your response was ignited by the words of your then-favorite Bible verse, Philippians 3:14. “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Knowing there is a “high calling” is what will sustain and fulfill you. From where I sit now, viewing your journey, there are few regrets. Only months before this picture was taken, you wrote a poem about a “woman becoming.” Even then you understood that success was a process and that moving with the flow of life and not against it would be your greatest achievement.

Love you deeply,

Oprah

Now, the question is what future can you picture? I like the part she said “knowing that there is a high calling”. Have you realised that there is a higher calling for you? Or do you think this is all there is to life? Our lives should be upward and forward, pressing on to greater goals and making an impact in our generation. A common interview question that is always asked is “where do you see yourself in 5 years?” What would you be doing 1825 days from now? What improvements and changes would have happened in your life? Would there be positive impacts from you to affect your environment positively? What future have you pictured for yourself? Just before writing this article I was challenged by a friend who just registered an NGO MENTAL HEALTH INITIATIVE FOR AFRICA; I was mostly impressed that she was not focusing on Nigeria but on Africa as a whole and I can only imagine how big she will be in 5 years or more.

Some people say it’s best to take the days as they come but I think you need to plan for the days or else things will take you by surprise when you least expect it. The day opportunity knocks on your doorstep, will you be prepared to make use of it? On the day of opportunity, it will be too late to prepare. That is why you need to position yourself for what lies ahead. Project yourself into the future and start seeing a picture of who you want to be and what you want to do. Don’t think it’s too late to start, NO…wherever you may be in life you can decide to make a change starting from today. No one can live your life better than you can, so decide to live it to the fullest and take a hold of your future. I know a guy who has a picture of his Dream Home on his office wall and people asked him…Why is it there? What is it for? Do you think you can afford that? And this was his reply, “I just smile…I smile because that picture motivates me to work harder at my OFILISPEAKS business and every time I stare at that picture, I can visualize my future family relaxing and enjoying LIFE to the fullest and I keep going and I stay motivated”.

You can also have a picture of where you want to be and put it on your wall. I did that too, I write out my visions and place them on my bedside so that once I wake up every morning I read it and picture myself in that future and also pray with it cos God will only take you as far as you are willing to go. Another quote by my pastor, “the extent of your vision is the boundary of your blessing”. This means that how far you can see will determine how far God can take you. So I’ll ask you again….WHAT FUTURE CAN YOU PICTURE? WHAT TYPE OF FUTURE DO YOU WANT TO FEATURE IN?


PS: Pls click HERE to LIKE the Mental Health Initiative for Africa page on Facebook. 

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