In The Right Direction

As the year has already begun, a lot of us have started putting actions towards our dreams for the year. While this is very good and welcomed, you also need to understand one thing - in life and in the pursuit of your dreams, direction matters very well. Someone that is going with speed on the wrong track will waste so much time in the long run and will not arrive at their destination. Surprisingly, Someone on the right track, even if they are not moving at much speed, will get to the destination. In life, it is not necessary the speed at which you do something (how fast) that matters, but the direction (how well).

Some months back, a friend of mine invited me and a couple of other friends to his birthday celebration in his new apartment which, incidentally, none of us knew before that day because he just parked in a few days to the day of the party. So he gave us the direction of how we would locate the place. We were supposed to go with two cars; a V-8 engine suv, and a Mini Cooper because we could not enter just one car. By all standards, everyone thought that the suv would get to the destination first because of its speed and it was a newer model of car, which was also the car I followed.

However, on the road, we mistakenly took the wrong turn. With that high speed, we were proceeding in futility on the wrong road. After about 30mins of blowing speed, we finally told ourselves that we are not on the right road because he never mentioned that it was this far. As a matter of fact, we were almost leaving the city, just to let you know the kind of speed we were at. We had to bring out the directions which he gave us and that was when we knew we had followed the wrong turn. What we did was to turn and started going back to the spot at which we took the wrong turn, so as to make the right turn.

After we had gotten to the spot, which was after about another 30 mins, we made the right turn. When we finally got to the guy's house, adorably, those that went with the Mini Cooper, which was running at around 65km/hr had already gotten there more than 25 mins ago, while we just arrived. My friend made a very humorous but insightful comment in pidgin, he said "no bi pesin wey run fast dey win race." Meaning "winning the race is not a function of how fast you run." This made me to understand that in life, we should not underestimate the power of direction. In this context, direction simply means the "how to" do what you want to do. For everything that you want to do, there is usually a way that it should be done, and any deviation from it may affect the result.

You may have a dream of what you want to achieve, an idea, an aspiration, a target, etc. All these are good, but you have to start by making plans for them. Which includes finding out the best way to do it to get the best result. One of my mentors from way back, once said that "everything you want to do has an easier and better way to do it, so find it out." You may want to pass from point A to point C for example, and someone else may go from A to B to X to Y before they finally arrive at C. But if there is a better way of moving directly from A to C without passing through all the other points, then it will be worthwhile to make use of it - this is what direction entails.

In life, everyone has a different destination and this makes everyone having a different direction to follow. What may be a destination or an end for an individual may just be a bend for you. That someone is going through a particular route, or doing something in a particular way and it works for the person does not mean that you have the obligation to follow after the same process. You have to know and understand what works for you and then follow after it. Processes and methods are not a one-formula-for-all scenario but for each task you want to undertake, there is usually a specific direction to go about it - so always know what works for a specific task for you and stick to it.

Thanks for reading