What Is Your Excuse? (1)

Seriously, what is your excuse?

Helen was born a normal little girl. Indeed, everything was fine until she was 19months old when she fell ill. That in itself should not have been much of a problem if she had been born in 1980. But a mere hundred years earlier, in the year 1880, a condition that might have been meningitis was described by her doctors as 'an acute congestion of the stomach and brain' and left little Helen both blind and deaf.

So, how do you communicate with a blind person? You speak, and he hears. To a deaf person, sign language solves the problem. But what do you do when a person is both blind and deaf? 

Helen learned how to communicate through the sense of touch. She learned how to speak, how to read Braille and even how to read people's lips and sign language using her hands. In fact, in 1904, Helen Keller became the first blind and deaf person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. 

But she did not stop there. You see many of us make our education or career an end in itself. It is not. It is only a tool in your hand with which you can make your own unique footprint in the sands of time. Helen went on to become a world-famous writer and speaker who gave speeches in over thirty countries of the world and supported many worthy causes such as birth control amongst others.

So I ask you again, what is your excuse today? You see, whatever the odds stacked against you, there is somebody out there either with exactly those same odds or worse who is choosing to excel IN SPITE of those odds. Great achievements were never made in the absence of opposition and problematic circumstances but In spite of them.

Unfortunately, one of the factors I have found that hinder a lot of people from doing great things is inferiority complex resulting from unhealthy competition. So you won't write that book because Mr A surely writes better than you or you won't start that charity or sing that song or make that business proposal or approach that lady of your dreams because surely, Mr B is better qualified than you or simply because no one else has done it before!

Well, it is understandable when right from the first day in a classroom all our achievements are made into a competition between us and our peers. So, instead of being focussed on how much math I learnt this semester and why I got a B in math, all I am concerned with is, I came 2nd in class and Eddy came first, I have to beat him next time.

And we take this mentality into the outside world, but we let it stop us from even trying at the things we are passionate about! Don't get me wrong, healthy competition is very good indeed. It pushes you to try harder and achieve more, but I find that in reality, the flip side of the coin is more often the case. A lot of us look with secret envy at a few people doing great things we once upon a time passionately planned to do, then simply return to our mundane lives.

Well, today, throw away your excuses for not trying! Don't just be a doctor, find time to participate in that community health enlightenment program on radio you've always been interested in. Don't just be a government worker, write that book about good work ethics you have dreamed about writing. Don't stop at a first degree, go for that masters in the particular area you have desired to further explore. You want to visit the Alaska? Start saving up today and go apply for that visa. The penguins are waiting!

Yes, in life there is always the chance that you will fail, but failure is only one of the many ingredients found in the pot of greatness. Take a realistic look at your excuses and tell them, 'You are not stopping me any longer.' Remember, you have a unique set of footprints that no one else can imprint on the sands of our time. So, quit worrying about what the next guy is doing better than you and just give us your own unique 'You'. We ask for nothing else!