The 10-star life: Mortality

The race for the 2023 elections is on. The two main political parties, APC and PDP already parade a flurry of aspirants, especially for the office of President. At the last count, there were about twelve from each side. Not to mention other aspirants from other parties. The daggers are also out. All sorts of brickbats are already flying. That is to be expected. However, what many people fail to realize is that all the contenders remain aspirants until the primaries of the parties hold to determine which of these contenders will fly the flag of their party. My appeal to everyone who is currently throwing tantrums and hurling invectives at any of the aspirants in preference for their own person is that they should sheathe their swords and preserve their gunpowder until the actual candidates are known. It is absolutely needless making an enemy of your friend all because he does not support your aspirant (who by the way, probably does not even know you and who may not emerge as the party candidate). Before politics, there was friendship. Politics must not be allowed to put an end to a friendship that it did not start. Now to our discourse for today.

Imagine yourself at the age of 100. You are on a reclining chair and reminiscing about your life. Several scenes flesh across your mind. Opportunities that you seized and those that you missed. Relationships that enhanced and enriched you and the toxic ones. Holidays you took and the ones you wished you had taken. Would your smiles of satisfaction outweigh the pains of regret? The reverse would of course be the case if the memories are less than salutary.

Scientists have told us that everything in creation is a mass of energy which is indestructible but can change state. If that is so, it means that in reality, we don’t die. Even after what we call death, we continue to exist in another state. However, our real continuity is reflected in the quality of our current significance.

If you have followed me on this journey, this will be the final part of this series. I have no doubt that you have learnt one or two things about intentional living. The purpose of life is a life of purpose. There is nothing as terrible as getting to the end of one’s life with regrets on what might have been or suddenly recognizing that one’s perception of success has nothing to do with the Maker’s perception. As we saw at the start of the series, purpose is determined by the maker of anything. Every brand in the market is a code of purpose. It is that intrinsic purpose that determines its value. You never know the worth of anything until you understand what it was made to do.

Our sojourn on earth as humans has a time frame. Whether we like it or not, no matter how long we live, we will die or as I indicated earlier, change state. However, the real question of life is not about immortality in the sense of not dying, it is about a quality of life that ensures that we do not die in the hearts of everyone who remembers us.

Responsibility is the price of true liberty and the platform of effective leadership. The story of Nigeria as a nation cannot be told without the mention of people like Herbert Macaulay, Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Peter Enahoro and others like them who were at the forefront of the struggle for independence. Or Wole Soyinka who wrote the play, A Dance of the Forests performed at Nigeria’s independence celebration in 1960. Just in case you did not know, many of them were in their twenties when the mantle of leadership of the nation fell on their shoulders. American history cannot be told without the mention of Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison and Franklin Roosevelt. The United Kingdom has Winston Churchill, Thomas Cromwell, William Shakespeare and others who helped to shape the course of the nation’s history and development.

As I indicated in an earlier edition, monuments are erected on the face of the earth but legacies are erected in the hearts of men. Immortality is therefore not about how long a man lives but how well. Jesus Christ lived for only 33 years. Over two thousand years later, His name continues to be the most mentioned on earth, even among those who are not His disciples!

Life is a paradox. There is a delicate balance between life and death. We live to die and to effectively live, we must die. In my book, Leadership is for the Dead, I make it very clear that for a man to effectively pursue significance in life, he must die to self. Sacrifice is the plank on which significance rests. You cannot effectively pursue something without giving up something else. On the one hand, we are conscious of our humanity and consequently, our weaknesses with all their inherent limitations. No man is infallible. On the other hand, we recognize that we are not here on earth to merely occupy space and mark time, a situation that does not make us better than an ordinary animal. This inherent recognition of our vulnerability and time limitations should awaken in us the need to discover a higher purpose that becomes the compass of our conduct and sets the parameters for our priorities and choices as we navigate through life. We must therefore choose to make the most of the limited time allocated to us to live for God our Maker and His plan for us in His agenda for the universe.

True success always comes with a price. The pathway of convenience never leads to greatness. It requires that we deliberately put our nose to the grind, roll up our sleeves and do the needful if we are not to be gone with the wind whenever we physically expire.

Eternity is written in the hearts of men and not on monuments of brick and mortar. Success leaves footprints. The pathway to immortality lies in discovering, embracing, developing and deploying the uniqueness of your purpose in life for the greater good of the human race.

There is so much treasure that God packaged into you for your world, enough to etch memories of God’s goodness through you to the rest of humanity in the hearts of those who have an encounter with you. To live without that consciousness is to live a meaningless life, even if lived in opulence. However, whenever you do and you embrace the required responsibility, you become an unstoppable force with an unmistakable imprint on the sands of time.

Your life is worth it!

Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!