Are You 18 - 25 Years Old?

I want to tell you something

Right now, you are in the age bracket where things happen - the good, the bad, the ugly and sometimes even the very ugly.

Your hormones are raging wild and you want to taste all the tasteables

You want to impress your mates and show them that you are no baby any longer

You want to prove that you are now a man or woman as the case may be

And so you spend time on social media sites comparing notes

You upload pictures of things that you have never done and claim that they are really from you

You visit the Kardashians' Instagram Pages and you wonder why you are not like them

You visit Jeff Besos' instagram page and you think that he's stinkingly rich and yet he does not know you

Let me tell you something

All those seconds and minutes and hours you spend on Instagram and other social media sites comparing notes with people you don't know and may never get to meet in person and wishing that you were like them is WASTED TIME

It is time you should channel into doing something creative to better your lot in life

One fact you need to allow sink into your brain right now is that social media life is a false life - most people photoshop pictures and post on their handles pretending to be doing what the pictures say but in real life, they are not like that, so when you watch such posts and you get envious or jealous or even angry at your God, you are losing it.

And such a feeling makes you want to taste success in a hurry as a matter of NOW, forgetting that "success is not a destination, it is a journey"

At this age of yours, chances are that you are either in a Higher Institution of Learning or you actually, have graduated.

Now if you're still a student, how are you using your time?

Playing around most of the time?

taking in all junks in terms of food and drinks and the others?

chasing all in skirts or trousers?

having flings here and there, sowing your wild oats?

being a party freak?

having good times, so much fun?

Allowing your mates to convince and confuse you?

And then remembering to read only when the Examination Time Table is released? Yes??

Does anyone still need to ask why you have a certificate but cannot defend your degree?

Does anyone still need to ask why you are unable to make one complete sentence in English without adding a local exclamation or even broken words?

Let's say you are already a Graduate and peradventure you are serving your Fatherland if you're a Nigerian; all that talk about you acquiring skills for a living make no sense to you because your Pastor or Imam has told you that "Your case is different" and that "Companies will locate you in your house and give you an appointment letter"

Your mind is sold to "getting a good job after service" and when you're asked what constitutes a good job, you're like "a good pay with other perks"

The fact that so many other persons who were also told by their Pastors and Imams that their cases were different  but who have spent years waiting for their cases to become different in a world filled with indifference does not seem obvious to you

So you finish youth service and with no other skills except the certificate you're banding around and with no other plan except to "pick up a good job with good pay in a good Company" you start counting the years 1 year, 2 years, 3 years and your Pastor or Imam still keeps telling you that your case is different - but of course it has become.

Then you arrive at that frustration point where you're forced by circumstances to pick up a job quite below your expectations and then you start the 9 to 5 grind at a job you hate with a passion but have to do so as to have a meal on your dining table and your singsong becomes "30 days make 1 meal"

The time to pick sense my friend is NOW

When you're in School, do exactly what you were sent there to do - READ

Don't just cram to pass examinations, read to understand the subject so that you will be able to defend your degree when you eventually earn it

When you're serving, take nothing for granted, learn whatever skill you can "don't just burn the time on your hands, use it effectively"

Arm yourself with Plans A, B, C, and even D so that when the service year is over, you won't only be dropping CVs all over the place, but you'll be busy making a life

Making a good life is a process that comes with patience. You must have to fall in love with the process, you must deploy patience while executing the process

The process is not automatic unless you were born with a golden spoon in your mouth but if you were born without any spoon in your mouth at all, then you've got to establish the process of making a good life and that starts right at this age bracket (18 - 25)

Decide what you want out of life and then go and build it

Today, go and start a side hustle. If you've got digital skills, then deploy them to digital marketing.

The old popular saying that "Slow and steady wins the race" is still very much apt even in the now because like I said earlier - "Life is a marathon and not a sprint"

And right now, drop all forms of competition; just know that you're competing with yourself

Every day, work on improving yourself by 1% and in 100 days time, you would have hit 100%

Decide, Plan, Act, Succeed, rinse and repeat - that's the solid key to success

And if you're 18 to 25 years of age, you are in the best time of life - use it WISELY

PS

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Dr. Jerry - the First Oguzie

#SuccessWithDrJerryTheFirst

Here's the Video