Seun Kilanko

This is a sequel to my last post where I talked about my journey to Lagos and the lessons I learnt on the way. I already emphasized in the previous post that it’s not about the condition you find yourself but how you manage yourself in this conditions will determine your success or failure. That set-back can be to your advantage if you decide to turn it around to your advantage. If you’ve not read the post, click here to read it. I suggest you read it before this.

Now, to the business of the day! The unforeseen obstacle on my way was a traffic jam. I was held up in it for close to two hours until I decided that if I was going to leave that spot early enough, it was up to me. I needed to find a means to leave that spot. We couldn’t have hired the world’s strongest man to carry the bus in which I was seated and scale us through the traffic. That’s not in any way possible and that would have even been the easiest way to compound our problems. Instead, I did something that might sound stupid.

During our stay at that spot, we got the information that the traffic jam is not likely to be cleared in the next imaginable hour. Some even said they have been there for more than six hours. “So terrible!” you said? That was exactly what I thought to myself. Does it mean I will be at a spot for hours and end up missing an important seminar? God forbid!

In a bid to get a fresh air and free myself from the stuffy air in the bus, I got out of the bus. While outside the bus, I had a feel of how terrible the situation was. I noticed I couldn’t see the end of the pile of vehicles on the road. All hope of getting any further seemed to be lost.

Suddenly, my understanding came to the fact that if I was held in there, it’s neither the fault of the government nor the bus driver that took that road but my fault. Does it sound funny to you? You don’t seem to be able to understand how it is my fault.

I knew I had got a choice to make; maybe to stay there for hours or leave immediately. At this point it dawned on me that if I have got to leave that spot and move forward, it’s up to me. My mind was made up to leave this spot at all cost. I saw that nothing was holding my legs back from moving forward. The wheels of the vehicles were the ones held back from moving but not my own natural wheel- my legs.

At the birth of this thought, what was I waiting for again? I got my legs to action and decided to walk myself out of the traffic jam. This sounds pretty cool to your ears but it was a tough decision.

Why have I taken time to write this epistle? I love you and want your progress. I need to ring it to your ears so loud that you are definitely at that point because you allowed yourself to be at that point. Nothing happens to you in life without your consent. Nigeria or whichever country is what it is today because you and I permitted it. Your financial status is at that same spot because you never took the bold step to get to the next level. I took a bold step less than a year ago to step up my personal life and it is what you are enjoying today.

Get your mind out of the bus. Get your mind out the present situations and you’ll see yourself on the other side in bliss. You are engineered for progress and not set-backs.

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 14th, 2009 at 9:32 pm and is filed under Attitude, Choice, Encouragement, Entrepreneurship, Failure, Fear, Gists, Insight, Life, Nigeria, Self Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.