This is a sensible conclusion I’ve come to make after taking some time just trying to understand why is it that everything is the way it is: Leaders are indeed roads to destiny. What is the meaning of this, anyway? Well, it only remains for you to sit back and let this discussion sink in…
First and foremost, we need to define who a leader is. In my basic understanding of the matter, I’ll state that a leader is anyone among us tho has the capability to influence another at any capacity; whether minutely or significantly; in order to bring about a shift in this other person’s life. This shift doesn’t have to be something that’s eloquently dramatic as it is indeed the small things we often overlook in life that end up determining the overall course of our lives – in fact, humans are most effectively inspired to change through small, chewable promptings. These things can be our vocabulary or choice of words, the music we listen to from time to time of the films we watch, the books we read, the food we eat [had to slot this one in to keep you reading], the games we play and the overall manner in which we approach our day-to-day lives. You’ll find that random suggestions that come from trusted friends in the form of the aforementioned things are what we tend to adopt over time to make them the building blocks of our own experiences and overall belief systems.
In other words, I’m trying to say that we are all leaders as human beings since we get to feed off from each others’ habits to the extent that we end up walking into common destinations in life, whether positive or negative. Indeed, birds of the same feather flock together. Thus, the next time you are asked as an individual or group to identify the leader amongst you, just go for the one with whom you share the most values or the one from whom you frequently seek advice or even approval. He or she is your leader in those specific respects of life.
Getting back to myself, I have had a fairly-balanced experience with different sets of leaders; the good and bad ones. In this case, I can honestly admit that I’ve been with one set of friends for just a few weekends and ended up accumulating debt through unchecked indulgence as well as other unnecessary personal issues whereas I’ve also been with another set of friends for a year or so and ended up making the most significant forward shift in my College life that ended up transforming my academics and subsequent medical career for the better. Each of these sets of friends served as a leader at different points in my college life and each had a specific destination to help get me to. Whom do you currently have in your life and to which destination are they taking you? – Without any shadow of a doubt, again, we are all leaders and we get to serve in different capacities so as to influence each other in different ways which culminate in different outcomes; whether beneficial or detrimental. Additionally, my experience with these two sets of friends also taught me one thing: that it takes a lot less time to destroy one’s life than it does to build it; it’s just the way it is.
What then, gets to determine whether or not I’m willing to submit to your leadership as a fellow human being? First and foremost, it all comes down to whether or not I’ve been able to discover myself: the values which I wouldn’t compromise anything for, the voice I wouldn’t allow to be silenced for speaking with reason and the vision I wouldn’t trade for any lesser thing in life; no matter how enticing it might be – this in itself can only be genuinely achieved in the Lord as knowing our Maker is the only way to walk into genuine freedom. Upon discovering myself is when I can now begin to relate with people based on what influences I’m able to allow to be transferred from them to me. In this simple way, I am then able to determine whom among my friends I am willing to trade a bit of my life’s worth for; a bit of my time, my strength, my vulnerabilities, my values, voice as well as vision. Your submission to a form of leadership should be based on this leadership’s ability to match up to your values, your voice and your vision in life; nothing less.
Thus, the search for leadership should always begin with the internal exercise of self-discovery; or what I would more preferably term as finding the reason for which God allowed you to exist on earth as a man [or woman] with a mind, an unmatched emotional touch and an independent decision-making capacity. In other words, to what best use do you need to put these three critical components of your person? This is how I personally began to cultivate the leader in me. Finding purpose is the only thing the average human being needs in order to make sense of this mysterious experience of life. Purpose in this case is only found in the one who made the product with its uniquely spelled out features: the Lord our God who is Christ. Once you find yourself, you are able to then connect with others who’ve equally found themselves and together, you’ll be able to function as a team bound to fulfill a good overall course in life; a common destiny.
How, then, is this discussion relevant to our nation as well as to me and you as individuals? The relevance of this digest cuts to the very core of our existence as we are all truly after one thing in life: proper governance [this is in keeping with the previous discussion on whether Christ brought to us Religion or governance – God knew exactly what we needed and this was governance; not Religion]. In this case, any leader we get to appoint as a people can only do one thing: take us to the place from where he or she comes; whether it is a dungeon or a mansion, whether it is hell or paradise. Just like I’ve told you that I got influenced differently by two sets of friends in keeping with their shared values, voice and vision; the leader that me and you get to choose will only influence us in keeping with his or her values, voice and vision. This will on the other hand either bring us personal fulfillment or unmatched devastation [expectation vs. reality]. I believe that we find ourselves in such a position as a people and the ball now lies in our courts to decide which hoop to dip it into. In this case, we can only be able to make a sound decision as a people to the extent that we’ve been able to discover our do-or-die values, our shared voice of reason and finally, our common vision.
In this way, it then comes down to me and you being able to discover ourselves so that we can be able to make ourselves into individual, free-flow-traffic roads which only need to connect to a single common road that is able to drive us to a common destiny in life. We are all born leaders, we only need to walk into the path the best suits our area of leadership. This then leads us back to one alone who is the only way to life; the only way to finding reason for our existence: the Lord our God who is Jesus Christ. Leaders are roads to destiny and He is the perfect definition and demonstration of one.
