How about you gift yourself something this Christmas? I know it’s only two days away, however, you’ve always had this particular gift but maybe not fully utilized it. The gift that is YOU. This may sound absurd but bear with me for a moment. When is the last time you experienced yourself? When you even understood what you want and what you think. We take such pride in being busy and even in this holiday season we are just as busy with social occasions, family etc. Take this time to completely quiet down and investigate yourself. The Bible tells us “Be still and know that I am God”. Give yourself stillness because only in that can you also know yourself.
Have moments without people, TV, social media and as much as possible try and slow down your own thoughts that keep telling you what else you should be doing. Just sit with you and God. In this quietness, you will start to know yourself without the labels that society attaches to us. You are much more than a daughter, son, mother, spouse, father, CEO, banker, student lawyer, rich, poor etc. You literally see yourself in a different light. The world’s way or version of you is not always correct or complete. When you can describe yourself more and more without titles and roles, the clearer you are seeing yourself (Click to Tweet this thought). You may even start seeing strengths, talents, passions that you have not used or undermined in your life.
The hardest question people grapple with is what they truly want – to do, achieve, have or experience in this life. Many people think that they have achieved success simply because they have met society’s expectations. For example, many people are getting into debt to buy cars they can ill afford so that other people can be impressed. Some people have found themselves stuck in careers because of family expectations that had nothing to do with them. What society wants for you and what you truly want are two different things. Only in this silent space, can you see the difference and start charting the path.
Imagine you were the only one left on the planet. God zapped everyone else into heaven and will come for you later. Now you will get abundant time to experience yourself. The world as is works but robots execute functions e.g. you could eat in a restaurant but the waiter would be a robot. No one can emotionally react to the items you own. What would you still choose to do, have, experience or achieve? Some may now realise things like cars are not important and they would rather travel. Others may realise they would still like to experience that car. At least they would now know that they truly want it. If people were going to be brought back in about a year what would you like them to find? Will the world be a better place? Maybe some of the things that we have been chasing after are not that important. Write down the answers to these questions. As we go into a new year it may affect the way you handle relationships, money, business and most of all time.
I have recently learnt through the passing of a very dear friend that we do not own time. Not even tomorrow is promised. However, at her funeral, I got to see the beauty of how she lived life and quietly impacted so many people. The other gift you can give yourself is the time called NOW. We waste way too much time condemning the past and dreading the future. We think happiness, fulfillment etc. happens in future when the list of items has been checked. We lose sight of how precious the present is and we can never get it back. For example, go to any restaurant and observe people. They are supposedly having a meal together but instead, they are all on their phones. How can some virtual conversation or social media post be consistently more important than a human being?
We do the same thing even with those nearest and dearest to us. Even future aspirations will be realised in a day called ‘Today’ and moment called ‘Now’. Your future is influenced only by how you handle the present and not by some unspecified event or windfall happening later (Click to Tweet this thought). You impact people (or lose the chance to do so) at every moment. Be fully alive now. Your own life, your family, society, work and even the world just needs ‘You’ to show up. Have a Merry Christmas.
This article is dedicated to a cherished friend of many. Violet Kibera Kimotho who fought the good fight, kept the faith and finished the race.
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