Acheiving Immortality

Immortality.  The dream of mankind for ages. It has always been mankind’s greatest ambition to live forever and to elude the Grim Reaper. Attempts have been made but these all ends up in failure. Technologies have been created, chemicals concocted, and rituals made but humans end up still dying. The pain associated with death is so negatively painted in the minds of people that losing a loved one or dying is not to be imagined to occur. But death is inevitable. There is no other way around it.

But even has death takes you away; there is still a way of existing in the minds and hearts of beloved ones. Even though we have been long gone, it can still be as if we were still there, in their very presence. That way my friend, that formula or technology, whatever you want to call it, is nothing other than leaving a legacy behind. All through history in several countries of the world there are legacies that have been left behind by different men and women. Whether these legacies were profitable or not, what matters is that they eventually achieved the goal of being immortal, not in their physical forms but in the unseen forms of respect, adoration or hatred of the person in question. Albert Einstein, Mahatma Ghandi, Theodore Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler, Michael Jackson, Pablo Picasso, Jesus Christ, The Wright Brothers, Stephen Covey...the list is endless. What set this people apart from the average man is the ability or effort to do the extra ordinary, to live unlike other men and create thought systems contrary to what society regards has been standard or conventional. Each one of them were known for something in particular, they were unique as every other individual is but what set them apart is that they discovered that uniqueness and keyed into it. They were people of purpose. And that purpose determined every other thing in their lives.

One day everyone around right now will give their last breath and leave this world for another. But before you go, what do you intend leaving behind for the people still around, for the next generation? It would be selfish to come to this world and not change a thing in it, for at least some had to sacrifice their very lives for things to be different. A life of legacy is a life of purpose.

After all has been said and done...

Yes! That lifelong “success” dream has finally been realised…the houses built, the cars acquired, the businesses are running fine, the family’s happy and every other thing seems to be going on well…and yet there is still this dissatisfaction, this hunger that is crying out to be met. After all that has been said and done, what is the way forward?

The answer lies in the words impact, contribution, influence and blessing. There is more to life than amassing wealth and achieving a faulted conception of success. Success in its purest form is not only about setting goals and achieving them but also seeing to the welfare of others and helping to put a J on their faces. In every community, society or nation, there are maladies and problems that need to be dealt with and removed, to make the next person’s life better. In a psychology class recently, the lecturer asked us what we were doing here on earth, that is, our reason for existence. I sat and listened to my fellows’ responses. One said to live and die (lol), another said to be fruitful (lol) and finally someone said to be problem solvers (correct!). We are here to make the world better than we met it. Everywhere I look, I see problems and these problems demand solutions which everyone in one way or the other should be concerned about solving, because each person has a passion to deal with them. Thomas Edison didn’t like what he saw as regards electricity and he did something about it. There is something out there that is meant to be solved by none other than you. AIDS, hunger, lack of drinkable water, unpaid school fees, torn uniforms, addictions, malaria, exam malpractice, poor power supply, corruption in governance, roaming mad people…these and many more are the challenges before us. It is time to impact, to contribute, to positively influence and to be a blessing, after all has been said and done.