Be Your Own Architect!
There is hardly anybody reading this that will not know who an architect is. If you have built a house before or seen/know anyone who has built one, you will not find it hard to understand the work of an architect. As we all know, an architect is a person that designs the plan of a house before it is built. He sits down to take brief of his/her client and help transfer the client’s brief into a workable plan.
If there is a job you need to be good at dear friend, it is the job of an architect. I am not saying when you want to build your own house; you should draw the plans yourself. No! What is at stake is bigger and far from building house. There is a building that we all need to be good at planning for and thereby transferring our own brief into action. The planning for this building is often neglected by not a few and it is what determines what result we get. This building is our own life! We must learn to draw a plan for our own lives.
I have an uncle who happens to be an architect and I used to be fascinated at the amount of time and energy he devotes to drawing a plan of a client’s house. At times, I hear him speak out loud to no one in particular followed by a lot of gesticulations. Unfortunately, majority of us do not put enough time and energy into planning our lives like the professional architects. It is saddening seeing people live their lives without a plan. Most people who are living out a plan, are unfortunately living out other people’s plans for their lives.
The greatest joy one can have is to live according to one’s plan. Setting your plan and living it out brings an inner peace you can describe and this cannot be experienced if you are living without plans or living another person’s plan for your life. Living other people’s plans for our lives always lead to discomfiture and absolute frustration later in life.
When an architect is about to draw the plan of a house, he takes so many things into consideration, which may mean little or nothing to a lay man. Same goes for us. Nobody knows us better than we know ourselves therefore nobody should know what is better for us than ourselves.
If I were to draw the plan of a house, I will draw it according to how I wish it will be but an architect will not make such a mistake. He will draw it according to how it should be drawn putting into consideration so many factors. If you are going to plan your own life, will you put in things that will inconvenient you later in life? Will you draw up a plan to do things that you know will not be of any use to you?
If you decide to put the plan of your life in someone else’s hand, then you are courting trouble in the future. Nobody knows you more than you know yourself. I may just be seeing your shining face but I don’t really know who or what you are inside. I may not know your abilities and your weaknesses, so asking me or anybody else to help design your life is going to be a mistake that will surely lead to regret later in your life. You know your potentials and your inner dreams more than anybody else and you are the best person who can plan and design your life and future.
When you design your life in line with your dreams and abilities and things don’t seem to be working out according to the plan, you can still alter the plan since the “original copy” is still with you but if it somebody else’s plan you are living, changing may not be that easy. If you are living other people’s dreams and things don’t work out as planned, you will still take the blame. So why don’t you assume the responsibility of becoming an architect of your own life.
Nobody has the right to know how your life should be spent except you; not your parents, so many parents have misled their wards just by telling them they know what is good for them. Not even your relatives, friends, boss or any other living creature. If it is going to be, it is up to you. You have a choice to design your life and live according to the plans or borrow someone else’s. It is your choice! It is up to you and you should know that it is the end that justifies the means.
PLEASE TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR LIFE!
Thank you Adebola for your article. I agree with you about making a plan, and most of us do as we approach a new year. There are, however, several setbacks. The first is that we tend to have authority problems and even refuse our own, best intentioned directions. We know what we must do and yet we listen to the small voice that says, in childish tones, “Why should I? I don’t have to do anything! You can’t make me! I’ll start when I please.” and more such nonsense. Or we start our plan and within a short time we slip back into our old ways.
The other concept that came to me had to do with just the privacy that you speak of. Yes we are our own best judges of self but why stay so alone and alienated from others. Why not gather one or more like-minded friend and share our blueprints and brainstorm together for the best way to achieve or direct ourselves? Why not ask for help? So many of us forget that we can request aid. We have spirit guides who are so ready to assist if only we asked for help.
For myself, my choice of aloneness and pride in my ability to cope with everything has led me into a pitfall of lost energy, ill health, and though I am very strong, I no longer remember how to ask for help. So I am going to take my own advice along with yours and plan a new way but I will try very hard to ask both my closest friends and my guides to help me plan and activate those plans.
May the New Year bring you all your dreams as realities,
Warmly,
Yvette
Dear Ade,
I have little to say regarding all your motivational write ups, you’ve really touched my life since i got in contact with your materials. All the materials i read in your Blog makes me imagine what kind of person and a blessing you are to this generation. come to talk about your book the story of life, that one is more than a book am yet to find a name for it,
guess what, i have read the book over 12 times for the past two months and never get tired of reading it, i have giving out over ten copies to friends who came back to ask me where and how did i know u.
Ade, my Prayer for you in the new year is that God will refresh you the more , in 2008 you will be celebrated, you will be Honored, the books of remembrance will be open for your sake, and men and women of substance will have no option but to bless you.
have a blissful celebration and happy new year.
As for me, 2008 is my year of GROWTH AND ENLARGEMENT INTO GREATNESS.
remain Bless.
Sam. Iheanacho
Yvette,
God bless your soul for the GREAT analysis and comments.
It is not that you won’t need people. Remember the song, We all need somebody
My concern is that we must have an idea of what we want before asking for inputs from people. Asking people to give us the blueprint of our lives is what this article is addressing.
Have a great 2008
Sam, it is not I doing it, it is the Grace of the Almighty upon me
I hope you got my sms.
God bless you man
Nice post to start of the year for me.
Wish you all the best for 2008
That was a well thought out and accurate metaphor. The fact that we truly can live in a world of our own design reminds us how important it is to pay attention to how we build and what materials we use, metaphorically.
I like the analogy of an architect and a person. I also agree with you and the writer about sharing your experiences of building a house. I hope to share this analogy with others and think about the tools I may use in my life.