Hey!
Its been a while I have been here and am sure you must think I Have given up on you. Well I have been up and about and it gives me great pleasure to inform you that I have just been accepted to participate in Fall Session of the YaLa Citizens Journalism Online Program Organized in conjunction with the Aileen Getty School of Journalism in South Africa.
It is going to be about 16 -18 weeks of intense studies and I look forward to improving on my writing skills to serve you better.
Life is a journey and only those who understand this
come out successful for they know they must continue on this journey until its
time to stop at their destination. Someone once said that that there are three
things one must do before exiting mother earth – plant a tree; father a son;
write a book.
In this piece, poet, motivational writer and events management consultant
Chris Okpalaojioma shares with us the three phases we must pass through on
journey in life.
Please enjoy and feel free to join the conversation.
OjisiEmezie
Godfrey Okpaje, in the introduction of his book – 30
THINGS TO DO BEFORE YOU ARE 40, said and I quote “Life is in phases and men are
in sizes. What we do with each phase of our life is what determines our size in
the succeeding phase of life. These phases of life of men are referred to as
‘seasons of life’. According to him, the average human will live life in three
phases, the first 25 years is for himself; the second 25 years for him and his
family and the third 25 years for passing a legacy.
This statement above has been the bedrock, on which
I have laid the blocks of the foundation of my life. Permit me to say that,
whoever made the statement “life begins at 40”, is the worst mediocre to walk
the face of the earth. To me life begins the day you were born. Mark Twain
captioned it better when he said “The two most important days in your life are
the day you are born and the day you find out why”. Whoever said life begins at
40 and those that actually believe that saying should sit down and wonder why
they were not born at 40.
Every stage of life has its peculiar attributes, expected
actions and reactions, benefits etc. Furthermore, the success or failure of every
succeeding stage depends on our actions and inactions in the preceding stage of
our life.
Let’s take a moment to
breakdown these seasons of life.
1. The
Learning Phase
The first stage (0 to 25years) is the stage of
acquiring knowledge, both formal (education) and informal (skill acquisition or
learning a trade). To Godfrey, this stage is also a stage of personal
development, choice of career, development of character and capacity, discovery
of purpose, and preparation for its actualization. Whatever you wish to be in
the future should be decided at the stage, as this phase is the gateway to
living a fulfilled life. I call it the phase of LEARNING.
2. The
Earning Phase
Phase two, which I have tagged ‘THE EARNING STAGE’,
is the stage of value, where everything you have learned and acquired, are put
to work. The phase of stepping out to show the world why you were born, and
solve the problems you were created to solve. It is possible that you discover
your purpose after age 30, but why subscribe to that when you can do that in
its stage and focus on the attributes of stage two.
3. The
Yearning Phase
The third stage is the stage of enjoying the fruits
of your labour, as well as the time to pass on the legacy that you have built
over the years. This is the phase where most people are expected to retire from
active labour, step aside and recount your exploits in life. I call this phase,
the YEARNING PHASE. This is usually from ages 51 above. Before this phase, it
is expected that you must have show the world why you were created, made enough
investments, that the ROI is enough to take care of your needs, should your be
the case of ‘there is nobody to provide for your needs’.
Needless to state here that it is the knowledge you
acquired in the first phase, that will make your earning phase a soft nut to
crack. Furthermore, discovering your purpose, solving the problems that you
were created to solve, and achieving your dreams in the second phase is very
important. It will make your latter years very enjoyable and less stressful.
Failure to do the actions associated with the second phase will result to the
extension of your working years. Doing the right things at the right times
really pays.
Cheers.
Chris Okpalaojioma is a Sociologist by training but a poet, writer and events management consultant at Krystalz Fiesta, an events management outfit that creatively provides solutions to its clients.
Contact Chris via;
Facebook: Okpalaojioma Christian Ikenna
Instagram: @krystalzfiesta
Twitter: @krystalzfiesta
Instagram: @krystalzfiesta
Twitter: @krystalzfiesta
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