Stop Doing The Things You Hate:

By Mwebya Fred
Based on a True Story
It usually takes me a lot of time to come to an understanding with myself on the things I hate but end up doing them every single day. As we start 2016, I am greatly compelled to share a story that brought a lot of freedom and happiness to my life. I had always thought that I would be an engineer during the early days of my education; I then realized I somehow hated engineering as I got closer to the line where I had to make a decision.  I had always trusted my conscience that I had always been fair to my feelings and interest while choosing the things I loved.

Slowly but steadily as I advanced with my education, I realized I had this leadership calling that I very much wanted to be that individual that shapes people’s decisions in society.  At that time, I practically felt like I had all that it takes to be at the center of leadership. While at Namilyango College I gave leadership a shot by becoming the Students Council Chairman, a role that greatly changed my personality and opened up many new chapters in my behavior, conduct and reasoning.  I also realized that being in leadership is always not about “YOU” alone but all those that you lead.

From always thinking about a perfect and unique engineer to a focused and passionate leader, University time kept drawing closer and it was high time for me to choose the Courses that I would pursue if admitted at University. I strongly rediscovered that I deeply hated engineering as compared to business courses. Despite the fact that I was now getting inclined to the business side, I still felt like I had betrayed my feelings and passion but the truth was I hated engineering. I also realized that if I kept to my guns and picked on engineering, I would slowly but steadily grow unhappy every single day. I therefore lived a reality of my feeling and selected a business course to deal with finance and learn all its philosophies.

Lucky or unlucky; I was admitted to a public university with a course of my choice and calmly walked through the tiresome and deserving journey of Education. I commonly avoid the word education because its actual meaning (knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits) is not what we exactly reap out of school.  After 3 years of university, I knew that I would always work in the bank and other financial related institutions but trust me, the opposite happened. I now realized that my love for the internet and all its tools grew slowly but steadily. I knew that if I applied my finance class knowledge to the internet I would make a difference. The biggest challenge that I realized at that stage is that there is little I knew about the internet and how I could leverage on it to make myself better and happier. There is no doubt that for every stage in life, our experience and environment largely influences our passion and attitude towards the things that we always loved or those we always thought we loved.

When I realized that I barely had any knowledge about the internet but I deeply felt that I needed to do things differently, I decided to take on the challenge to read anything and everything about the internet. The deeper I read the more my love grew for the internet and all its tools. On realizing how my passions and interests have changed over the years , I realized that there must be many people out there going through the same struggle of choosing and taking that step towards things that make them happy and feel valuable.  It’s at this point I say  to you reading this article that Stop doing the things you hate; because doing things you hate makes you feel less valuable to yourself and those around you. Forcefully doing things that do not bring a deeper sense of value and happiness to you, consumes all the time you would spend doing the things you love.

 

Whether it’s a job or career choice, always take time to think through your individuality, talent and abilities before finally committing your time and energy.  2016 is still young and fresh and you still have the ability to set out some resolutions that you think will make you a very valuable asset to yourself and all those around you; the only way you can achieve that is by being true to your feelings and passion. If you are busy out there doing things that you hate, you are better off doing nothing until you discover the things that you love. Hope my experience can trigger your thinking and reflect on what you are doing now whether it adds value or not. Feel free to share your experience about this true phenomenon of life.

By Mwebya Fred

mwbyfred@gmail.com
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