Dear Friends,

It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the year 2020. It’s not just the beginning of a new year, but also the beginning of a new decade. To some, it’s a year of a new resolution, opportunities, and exploration. To others, it is a decade of milestone achievements that has been penciled down. If I may ask you, what does the year 2020 portends for you?

No doubt we all desire to see a fruitful year in our business, academics, profession, and family life. However, it should be noted that miracles don’t just happen, it is usually stimulated or prompted. In the same vein, our desires will not manifest by itself without us doing some work. Most of us made a resolution for 2020 on what we will like to achieve; some are wishing their friends would succeed so they can benefit from it; some are waiting for mentors, coaches and partners to come onboard, while some are hoping their parents and some random strangers will be the icing on their cake. Regardless of what your thought maybe, I want you to know that you are literally responsible for your success if only you can take your success into your own hands.

Parental and societal influence may have inserted some commas in your life, but you have to take ownership of the final destination. Regardless of your circumstance, you have to grow up because you are the owner of your destiny. According to William Shakespeare “Destiny is the one who deals the deck, but we are the ones who play the card”.

No one is destined to be poor in life. I strongly believe, given equal opportunity, everybody is a potential achiever, because we don’t have dull brains, only brains undeveloped. We are the only owners of our destiny. We decide what we want to do with our lives, our world, and our environment. It’s up to us to determine whether we should conform to or accept what we have been labeled as, or create the change we need with what is at our disposal.

Our futures can only be planted, watered, taken care of and harvested by ourselves. Humanity is only there to assist us in facilitating our desires. You can’t always go with the flow and you can’t always allow the winds to direct or guide you. Sometimes, you take control of the situation just like your ride a car. You are the only one who can guide the path your journey takes. Taking your destiny into your hands entails being actively engaged in what affects you by taking ownership and responsibilities of your life. In our contemporary society, a lot of people have an entitlement mentality. This set of individuals refused to do the needful by being actively engaged.

Before we discuss in details about this philosophical article/topic, I will like to state that this article can only be understood if you think out of the box. Let’s play a little academic, philosophical or spiritual exercise. For the sake of clarity, this is an empowerment article and not a spiritual article. If I may ask. Is there a destiny? If you say yes, who told you that everything is destined?  If everything in life predestined, where is the scope to use our intelligence? Nothing is destined! It is just that unconsciously we allow illusions and imaginations have some level of possibility in our minds. The destiny you are talking about is something you created consciously or unconsciously. The moment you utter the word “I want to take my destiny into my hands.  It doesn’t matter what Karma says. You’re are literally taking ownership of your life. This is the mindset of how you can walk into 2020 and the new decade

We shall be discussing how we can be actively engaged by taking our destiny into our hands

Business:

If you have a business, you can take your destiny into your hands by taking a worthy risk. If in previous years you were scared of buying a particular product for fear of how the market will receive it. You don’t have to continue to live in fear, worry, and doubt. You don’t have to continue waiting around and hoping that something will fall on your laps. I urge you to take that risk with uncommon skill and creativity that will not only solve a problem but also add value to the business space. You may even be scared of meeting a particular being or even reaching out to a particular organization because you feel you don’t have it together and as such, you depend on a middle man to get what you want. You can take a leap from other great achievers and small businessmen who dared to succeed by going after their desires.

Further more, you can go all out by learning as much as you can. Even it means borrowing to learn a trade, please do so. There’s nothing more honorable than taking care of your responsibility as opposed to begging. In today’s world, some great minds are comfortable with giving crumbs to both lazy and enterprising people just to keep them on the bottom of the ladder to work for them. In 2020, tell yourself, you don’t want to remain ordinary. You can do this by working on your side business after you finish your days’ job for your boss or employer.

Academics:

According to some schools of thought, this decade (2020-2030) is a digital age. These scholars opine that machines will take over human capacity and as such, they advise rational minds to step up their game, otherwise, they will be left out in the scheme of things. The honest truth is that academics will definitely play a huge role for you if you decide to take your destiny into your hands. As you may know, knowledge is information, but the application of that knowledge is what gives you that power. Taking your destiny into your hands entails you reading and researching wide. Don’t limit yourself to what you already know, leave your comfort zone by differentiating yourself from your contemporaries. You can start today by learning something new, even if it means reading a page a day, walking a few steps a day, or even praying. The world is moving at a fast pace and getting informed about the updated trend of information is a smart way to level up.

Personal and Professional Life:

This is the hallmark of all our individual and professional life. For 2020 to be productive, you have to strive to go all out by meeting and engaging with the right people. Seek to learn, relearn and unlearn. At your convenient time, meditate on what is lacking in your personal and professional life and what is needed to improve your lifestyle. You can do this by asking yourself what are the goals and vision you tend to see at the end of the year or decade. You can also reach out to your close friends, colleagues, associates, and mentors on what skills you need to move from point A to B. Their thoughts will be very resourceful in shaping your plans. When you are done with this hypotheses, sit down and ask yourself, what are you passionate about? Are you passionate about money, experience, network, time, happiness, etc.? This should be your guiding factors on how you can approach your game plan.

In conclusion, I want you to know that it’s never too late to be what you want to be. You still have a year or two and even a day to live your life. All that matters is for you to put in your noble effort and leave the rest to God and humanity.

Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s the author of the acclaimed book Design Your Destiny – Actualizing Your Birthright To Success. He can be reached via henrous@gmail.com