The Challenge of Becoming the Better Version of YOU

The most comforting feeling in this world is the emotion of being in control. Your life is perfect, and you feel that joy and pleasure of living a good and balanced existence. Your career is progressing in leaps and bounds and the income you are taking from your job is scary.

  At the same time, you have a gorgeous wife and a beautiful family who adore the ground you walk in. The leaders of your local church esteem you and are cognizant of your abilities as people, mobilizers, and leaders.

 In a nutshell, everything is perfect. Your health is excellent, being that you are a fitness enthusiast who religiously follows a fitness program and a healthier diet. You regularly attend medical check-ups to smoke out any hidden danger that may be lurking inside your system. 

All your vitals are functioning optimally. You can run for 20Km without losing breath and effortlessly crush weights at the gymnasium. You can do calisthenics without suffering Delayed Onset Muscular Syndrome (DOMS). 

 Everything you touch turns into gold. You are at a point in life, where you feel so benevolent, ambitious, and even consider joining politics to help solve society's lingering problems. You view life differently and is a wise person who thinks hooligans belong in the hottest part of hell.

 Your perfect life is so imbued in your psyche that all you think about is yourself and your happiness. You live in a bubble and never remember that gazillion bubbles gather into an ocean where gigantic and formidable waves are born. The waves come, and storms begin.

 In a series of missteps and daily wrong decisions, life decides to test you. It delivers a series of blows, one after another. The house of cards slowly crumbles and the beautiful life you crafted for yourself painfully ebbs away. 

Reality hits hard and mercilessly. Whatever you cannot control now becomes a dazzling reality.   Pain and suffering become your daily portion.  First, you drank from the forbidden well and you were caught red-handed, secondly, you decided to play poker with your job and the boss found out. Suddenly, your family is gone, and you do not know the status of your job.

 Indeed, you are summarily dismissed. The church that esteemed your counsel no longer has time for you. The reverend who was on speed dial has put your contact on voicemail. The relatives, who called you our successful son, now talk ill of you. Your cousins and siblings do not pick your calls. With time, you gobble the savings you had through litigations and trying to live, all of a sudden, you are living from hand to mouth. Your story now becomes the daily fodder for online blogs and local gossipers.  You are on your own. Your emotions oscillate between the abyss and hades, whichever is more torturous. Even the beautiful sunrise cannot smile at you. You feel doomed when you retire for the night and gutted when you wake up in the morning.

 The nights become longer, and the days become torturous doses of pain and sorrow. You sit back and try to figure out, where your goose got cooked; where did it all go wrong? Sometimes you think that the devil went to God to ask for permission to test your faith, akin to biblical Job for the Christians. 

But after a long wait, the double portion is not coming. God is yet to come down and lecture you about life and leave you more rich and powerful.  In the process of wallowing in negative thoughts, you slowly sink into depression. 

Everything becomes tasteless, All the pleasures you effortlessly enjoyed becoming meaningless. You begin conversing in past tenses and indulge in prolonged soliloquy. Your blankets become bosom buddies and you become detached from daily life. 

You wish for the god of death to visit you and siphon the life force from you. You cry endlessly and as the pain and despair start consuming you, you actively start seeking death. Indeed, you practically plan to execute it. But an inner voice holds back. 

The chirping of birds reminds you of life. The gushing winds remind you of fresh air. The rising sun reminds you of a beautiful day. The twinkling of stars reminds you of the mystery of the universe. Suddenly, life starts having meaning.  You encourage yourself, if there is breath in me, I must live. What you can control is within you and what you cannot control is beyond you.