Taking Life Head On

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- By Dayo Olomu

We are built to conquer environment, solve problems, achieve goals and we find no real satisfaction or happiness in life without obstacles to conquer and goals to achieve. - Maxwell Maltz in Psycho-Cybernetics (1960)

I've always taken life head on because I had no choice. I got an early jolt in life when, barely eight, I lost my father. Since then life has been a struggle. I was raised by my mother, a widower who had neither education nor financial means, but a big heart. My mother is a wonderful woman. I greatly benefited for the bottomless well of her wisdom. Mother instilled in me sound moral and spiritual values and the virtue of hard work.

My mother is the single most enduring and profound influence on my life. She sold her properties to send my brother and myself to school. Her goals were simple; she wanted me to make something of myself, go places she didn't dare dream of, Hence when I left secondary school I promised to make my life a miracle, to succeed against all odds. That promise has been my driving force.

Barely 10 years old, I had acquired the thirst to achieve from selling iced water and biscuits on the streets of Lagos to support my mother. The best thing that happened to me was growing up as they say, 'on the other side of the track', without the privilege of wealthy parents. Anything I wanted I had to hustle and scrap for. Far from a drawback, this was a definite advantage for me.

Today I thank God because those times have been confined to history. But there were times when, as the song says, "I've been down so long it looked like up to me." At no point in my life, down in the valley or savoring achievement, did I think it was going to easy. I suggest that instead of waiting for life to give you an easy path, that you enter the flow of life and take it as it comes to you, understanding that there will be hard times that try your soul and good times that lift it.

In life you need to have faith to be able to take life head on. Rather than raise the white flag of surrender, lash out in anger or take the path of least resistance, we can rise up to the challenge and meet it head on with our faith in God.

Marcus Garvey once said, "Some of us seem to accept the fatalist position, the fatalist attitude, that the creator accorded to us a certain position and condition and therefore there is no need trying to be otherwise." His words prefaced an essay by writers Dennis Kimbro and Napoleon Hill, who wrote about Black Men responding to challenges in the book Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America - An Anthology. "In everyone's life there come a time of ultimate challenge - a time when all our resources are tested. A time life seems unfair. A time when our faith, our values, our patience, our compassion (and) our ability to persist are pushed to the limit and beyond. Some have used such test as opportunity for growth; others have turned away and allowed these experiences to destroy their hopes."

Life would through so many things in your path. They are the milestones that make the journey meaningful, the events that not only shape our life but also how we perceive it. Today that boy who hawked on the streets of Lagos, who gate crashed an album launch on the way to making a name in showbiz has become a man, feet firmly on the way to his dream, propelled by a mother's grueling determination and his faith in God.

So when the going gets tough, when the situation looks uncertain, be not afraid. Trudge on. Hold on to your faith with the buoyant and divine assurance that all will be well. See you at the top soon.

About the Author:

Dayo Olomu is a London based motivational Speaker, Trainer, Media Entrepreneur & Toastmaster. He is the Founder of Dayo Olomu International and the Publisher/Editor-in-chief of M&M International Magazine

If you enjoyed his story email him at: dayo@dayoolomu.com