I was going through Facebook news feed when I stumbled on this quote on a friend’s wall “The greatest investment in life is to spend your youth days productively. If 30years is wasted in a lifetime the rest is a waste!”

In as much as I agree with my friend’s post, I disagree with “… If 30 years is wasted in a lifetime, the rest is a waste” Yes! I am a 100% supporter of the course of shaping and giving direction to life early enough, for the good of you and me, and our society at large. It is a wise decision to make your youthful days productive, but if you miss those youthful years, that does not mean that it is all over (the rest isn’t a waste).

With this statement… “If 30 years is wasted in a lifetime, the rest is a waste”, the writer is limiting the essence of man (limiting man’s ability, creativity, power, imagination and reasoning of the mind). Hence, the statement has the capacity to cause depression and promote suicidal thought in those that lost their early 30 years because they believed in falsehood, that ‘they are finished’.

It isn’t over yet, as long as there is life. Life is like boxing, it doesn’t matter how many times you were knocked down (years of not being productive). As long as you are still in the ring (the referee is yet to blow the whistle), the fight isn’t over yet. Death is the only valid limitation to success. As long as you are alive, you have no limitation to success nor excuse to stay poor. Haven’t you heard of ‘starting over in life’, so get Up! Don’t condemn yourself.

Guess what? Life is never too late! You may not win the first round or even the second round, but the good news is that the referee is yet to blow the whistle. Get up! It is not over yet. Wake up and discover yourself; you start living only when you discover yourself. If you discover yourself early in Life, then it means you are alive but if you discover yourself later in life, only then will you start living. As long as you are alive, there is no time limit for self-discovery, though it is advisable to discover yourself early enough in life because the higher you increase in age, the higher your responsibilities.

If you are a youth reading this, the best time to discover yourself is now because you have the strength to pursue your purpose, have less societal pressure and fewer responsibilities compared to a married man/ woman. If you are above 30 years, thinking that it is already late to be productive, perhaps you also have read a similar quote like the one I stated above, and all you are doing right now is to wallow in self-pity and condemn yourself. Maybe you feel like ending life itself, you believe in the lies of others that it is too late for you to amount to something meaningful. Wake up! This is the best time to prove them wrong. Challenge yourself.

Yes, there are possibilities that the people you know lived wasted years after when they are above 30 years. That should give you more reason to let your life be an exception. This should give you more drive to succeed like never before. Change your mindset, renew your thought, discover yourself and make progress. Some great business men in the world discovered themselves, even in their seventies, so if they can, you can. We also read the story of Moses in the bible, he discovered his abilities and passion in his eighties. It is never over until it is over.
Though time is a limited resource given to live, it is not a limiting factor to success. The limiting factor to success is ‘YOU’. Yes, there is no time limit to self- discovery, but self- discovery has a limitation. The limitation is not time, but ‘YOU’. Now, let’s talk about the ‘YOU’. Success is a function of self-discovery and self- discovery is a function of YOU. To make it easier, let me explain self-discovery for a clearer understanding so that we can see the correlation to YOU.

Self-discovery is the act or process of gaining knowledge or understanding of YOUR abilities, character and feeling. Who does the act or process cover? Or who carries out the act or process of self-discovery? YOU of course! If YOU understand your ability early enough in life, good for you. If you understand it late in life, good for you as well (at least you were able to understand before you die). It all depends on YOU. The difference in the timing of self-discovery (early or late or never) is determined by YOUR ATTITUDE. The worse thing that can happen to a man, is for him to die without discovering himself. The truth is the earlier you discover yourself, the BETTER. Hence, I advise the youths to discover themselves early in life. Perhaps, you missed out on the advice/campaign to discover yourself early (due to lack of exposure or understanding), I am here to motivate you and tell you not to give up. It is never too late as long as there is life. Don’t lose hope yet! Though you may think it is too late, but it is never too late. Nothing will stop your achievement as long as you decide to get up.

We hear of inspiring success story of those that discovered themselves late. An example is COLONEL SANDERS, the founder of Kentucky fried chicken (KFC). His life was a mess. At 65, he retired. He could not provide for himself, so he decided to commit suicide. He sat under a tree writing his will but instead, he wrote what he would have accomplished. Guess what? He discovered himself. He became a billionaire at age 88. The rest of his life did not end up in a waste. He discovered himself, though late, but he was still able to achieve in life.

Hard work without self-discovery will only result to mere TOILING. This explains why some people have been working for over 50 years, yet nothing to show for it (no success story) because they failed to discover themselves. I strongly believe that success does not come overnight; success is the result of the accumulation of acts/ actions done over a period of time and self-discovery is the first step to achieving success in life. Time does not decide success, self –discovery does. Discover yourself now and become successful in life.

-Ayobami Abiodun
Motivational Speaker
https://ahyobammy.