Occupy Your Seat

“Life is a journey, not a destination.” This is a popular quote I believe we all are familiar with, even if not in the exact wordings. Let’s say you decided to embark on a journey by air. What you would do is to purchase a plane ticket and on that plane ticket, would be written your seat number. So when you go on board that plane, all you needed to do is, to search for your seat and sit! The same way as God has created us, He has provided a specific but unique ‘seat’ for each and everyone of us to occupy in this life.

But the question is: IS YOUR SEAT TAKEN? Are you seated in the ‘seat’ that’s meant for you in your journey through this life? There is that special ‘seat’ that is meant for each and everyone of us to operate in full capacity from-a missing space in the universe that only you can perfectly fit. But many of us are busily searching for our ‘seats’ at the wrong zones; no wonder we remain so frustrated and have such a great deal of low self-esteem.

These ‘seats’ are simply, the potentials and the talents the Creator has deposited in us. Inside of these potentials and talents resides a great power. This power remains dormant, but immediately an individual begins to use his/her potentials or talents in no matter how insignificant way, this great power is unleashed. In simply terms, your talents/potentials are the switch you need to turn on before this power to make a significant impact on society can begin to manifest in you. As a result, if you operate outside the provinces of your potential, be sure to make enough room for frustrations, disappointments, failure and poverty as your dividends.

When we look around us, we can find these four categories of people:

1. People who are struggling to occupy ‘seats’ that are not meant for them – those who are striving hard to enter into careers that do not match their potentials.
2. People who have occupied seats that are not meant for them – those who are into professions that do not match their talents.
3. People who are striving hard to remove others from seats that they’ve genuinely occupied- those who are into ventures other than their passions and competing tirelessly with others who have turned their talents and passions into their professions.
4. People who have occupied seats meant for them-people who turn their passions into professions.

If we could be truthful, we can identify ourselves with one of the categories stated above. We find ourselves in these categories willingly or due to some circumstances beyond our influence. But whatever the reasoning, our current state of happiness or otherwise is dependent on the category we can identify ourselves with. Are you in the ‘seat’ that is meant for you? Or you are in a seat that is meant for someone else.

Let me break it down for you, this whole idea just works like the seat of presidency of any country; every country at any point in time needs just one person to occupy that seat and anybody or group that tries to remove from his seat, a democratically elected president plunges the whole country into complete chaos. That’s exactly how it works in real life also, until you’ve been able to identify your seat; your life would be a complete mess – because when you are not in your seat, then you’ve occupied someone else’s.

The secret to happiness is identifying your ‘seat’ and occupying it. You can be rich and successful at what you are doing but it doesn’t mean you have found your seat. You can be poor and unsuccessful at what you are doing now but that also doesn’t mean you are operating outside of your passions. Come to think of it! Are there not rich and successful men who are unhappy? Are there not poor and unsuccessful people who are happy? Most problems we have found ourselves in as a nation is as result of people occupying ‘seats’ in government that are meant for them.

Do you want to be successful? Do you wish to make a lasting impact on humanity? Do you long to leave a legacy that posterity will remember you for? And while achieving all these; are happiness, self-fulfillment and completeness things you wouldn’t want to sacrifice? Then, find your seat and occupy it-find your passions, explore your potentials, identify your talents and make them your career. There is a place for you, a place that you alone can perfectly fit.

What’s your excuse? Even if you are already into a profession that is outside the province of your passion, do well not to leave your talents dormant or your potentials rusty. It’s not enough to be rich and successful, happiness matters. In as much as hardwork and contentment play roles to being rich and successful, the one key secret that would give you riches, success and happiness is, finding your seat and occupying it. Let the world have a feel of the real!

Yes! I know fear would give you all the mesmerising reasons why you should put your passions on hold, reasons it can’t work for you. But go on, you don’t have to see the whole picture. This’s what Dr. Martin Luther King has for you: ‘you don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.’

My challenge to you today is to identify your ‘seat’ and occupy it. Think About It.

Written by: Elorm Apediavu Hermann
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