Nigerians, What Are You Thinking?

GUEST WRITER

 By Odimegwu Onwumere

Sometimes, it is very difficult to succeed in a country like ours where the government is not thinking in the direction to alleviating the sufferings of its citizens and enforce a radical change in its ill-policies and rapacious activities practiced by those who occupy the government; such government is better with knowing what it has gotten instead of thinking what it has given its citizens; very sad to see a country where majority of the people seeks for the comfort, and not the truth.

The problem with the country is that we have lived with fables for a long time. Something like if you are not a graduate, you will not succeed;  if you are not into politics, you will not succeed, and all that “God bless you” that even politicians tell their constituents, even when they, the politicians, have the ‘blessing’ in action in the list of their thinking dictionary.

Is it only in our government, in this country that George Carlin, an American stand-up Comedian, Actor and Author. b.1937, quote is being practiced?  “People who say they don't care what people think are usually desperate to have people think they don't care what people think.”

As if John Maxwell, an American Author and motivational speaker, was talking to some politicians in this country. He said: “As you begin changing your thinking, start immediately to change your behaviour. Begin to act the part of the person you would like to become. Take action on your behaviour...”

Anywhere you go to in our environment the story of hardship and unfilled hopes are the same, but said with varied degrees. Those who said that “God” has blessed them, say that also, with varied degrees.

Nevertheless, no matter your condition, there are people you are better off. That you are born in an illegitimate home does not make you illegitimate. That you are from the minority does not make you a person with minority ideas. All you need is to explore yourself. You have a nature-given-talent; work on it. With perseverance you could be the person the world had expected to change the world, in your own field.

Read more books; apply the principles that you have read, than engage in hours divulging your problems to a person who may only have death wish at heart for you.

Try to find who you are, your purpose on earth need to be fulfilled. You need to think more, for your survival, and worry less. According to an Irish Poet, Novelist, Dramatist and Critic, 1854-1900, Oscar Wilde said, “A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.” Quoting Napoleon Bonaparte, Andrew Jackson (American 7th US President, 1767-1845), quoted, “Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.”

You will never remain the same way you are if you think positively. No amount of cries could help, but only you and your action toward life. Harold Kushner said, “I think of life as a good book. The further you get into it, the more it begins to make sense.”

You might say that ‘I have had enough of this thinking’, but remember that you may not have been thinking in the rules designed to be thinking. Staring at the ceiling is just worry, and not thinking.

Thinking is when you outlined your power-given-purpose and are mapping out measures to actualize what many people call, dream.

There is no easiest way to success, either in the acquisition of wealth or health. You only need to work hard on your life and talent, and just hope.

Many successful men and women only did what they liked doing, without having much cognizance where the work of their hand could lead them, but they knew that they were heading to somewhere, and they are celebrated today; so you could be one today, only if you apply the rules.

Don’t envy every rich man or anticipate being like all. Not all wealthy men should be role models,  because many of them acquired their wealth by infringing on the rights of  other people. It is not wealth when you debased the integrity of the other person to skyrocket.  

Nothing is insurmountable in life except a man who is not thinking and working positively; the worst is the man who is not putting action into his thoughts.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a German Playwright, Poet, Novelist and Dramatist. 1749-1832, said, “Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.”

It is palatable and advisable that everyone thinks for himself, than hoping when that rich brother of yours or father or something could think and remember you and come to your help. Your thoughts direct your life. There is no better way to attract positive forces into your life like thinking positively and putting positive actions into your everyday life.

Voltaire, a French Philosopher and Writer, one of the greatest of all French authors, 1694-1778, said, “Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too”

Don't be among the people that Henry Louis Mencken , an American humorous Journalist and Critic of American life who influenced US fiction through the 1920s, 1880-1956, referred to as,  “Most people are unable to write because they are unable to think, and they are unable to think because they congenitally lack the equipment to do so, just as they congenitally lack the equipment to fly over the moon.”

Have you tried this? “Thoughts lead on to purpose, purpose leads on to actions, actions form habits, habits decide character, and character fixes our destiny,” Tryon Edwards, an American Theologian, 1809-1894.

Do you sleep with this? “Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it,” Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American Poet, Lecturer and Essayist, 1803-1882.

There is a popular quote thus: “At the age of 20, we don't care what the world thinks of us; at 30, we worry about what it is thinking of us; at 40, we discover that it wasn't thinking of us at all.”

What are you thinking?

Odimegwu Onwumere, Poet/Author, Media/Writing Consultant and Motivator, is the Founder of Poet Against Child Abuse (PACA), Oyigbo, Rivers State, Nigeria