The Joy Of Vertical Living!

"I haven't really found a place that I call home, I never stick around quite long enough to make it". Dido

These are the powerful lyrics that begin the award winning song "Life for Rent" by Dido. For many years, I have listened to this song and memorized the entire lyrics of the song, but it was not until recently that the depth of truth hidden in it began to revealed itself to me. How could I have been singing such a song with such insightful introduction lyrics and miss out on it. I can't help but reminisce about how I could have made a lot of better life choices had my eyes been open to this truth a long time ago.  

It dawned on me! I have for so long, like Dido being a wondering generality. Trying my hands on many things and mastering none, living my life horizontally and not vertically. Have you ever heard or seen anyone celebrate the worlds widest building? No! Everyone is more fascinated by the world's tallest building. No doubt, horizontal living is fascinating because it offers you adventure, Vertical living gives you mastery. Horizontal living spreads the bricks of your potential across many boundaries but vertical living stacks up those bricks of potential one after the other until you become a recognizable force.

A lot of people hide behind not being talented and as a result under perform. Unfortunately, Successful people aren't successful because they are talented or born best at what they do, they are successful because they are committed to what they do. They empty themselves into an endeavor they are passionate about until it yields favorably. They make their endeavor home. They stick around long enough to make it. They stay through all the seasons of their endeavors. Practice may makes perfect, but commitment makes you an unmatchable master of your craft.

The truth be told, every endeavor will pose itself to be very difficult at its initial stage. For example, the most difficult part of a university experience is at the beginning. The most challenging part of starting a business or pursuing a career is at the beginning. The most difficult part of a marriage is usually the first five years of being married. The most difficult part of pushing a car is also at the beginning. What this tells us is that beginnings are always characterized with difficulty. I believe this happens because life tries us to see if we are willing and committed enough to go after what it is that we say we want. Usually if we stay on past these periods of difficulty, we enter into seasons of ease. We must labor to enter into that season of rest, of ease. If you give up because the coconut has hard shells, you will never eat the fruit.

We need to understand the seasons of things. Things will always start out difficult before they get easy. Every great door of opportunity will always begin with a great opposition that attempts to resist you to see if you really want to go through that door. Every good land has it's Goliath that makes us appear like a tiny David's. If you persist through commitment, you go in. The pass mark for life's test is many times persistence. Persistence is the vaccine for resistance in life. We need to develop staying power!

People are like trees. We derive nourishment from being planted. We may survive by constantly being transplanted but we only grow by committing to the soil. We must stay on beyond the difficult times of our career, our time in school, our relationships or whatever it is that attempts to wear us out and push us into giving up. Difficulty isn't always synonymous to exit, sometimes it means try harder because you are close! 

Difficulty is just a season in life. Like every other season that has its tenure, it comes and passes away. 

We must out stay our difficulty! We must commit beyond every reason we have to give up!

Ultimately, the key to making it is to stick around long enough. If you lobby around difficulty long enough, he will give up on you instead. He wasn't sent to stop you, he was sent to try you to see how badly you want that opportunity. So prove to him that you want it like air and he would step aside and applaud you as you approach your great door of opportunity.