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!
Adebola A. Oni