Our goals in life require us to surround ourselves with the right people.
“May you never be the reason why someone who loved to sing, doesn’t anymore. Or why someone who dressed so uniquely, now wears plain clothing. Or why someone who always spoke so excitedly about their dreams, is now silent about them. May you never be the reason someone gave up on a part of themselves because you were demotivating, non-appreciative, hypercritical, or even worse-sarcastic about it.” (Sharouk Mustafa Ibrahim).
Maybe you have given up a part of you that you loved, that you were at peace being. Then this is for you. Life can sometimes set us up to fail when we don’t employ the right skills. May be someone said something to you that made you give up on a part of yourself that was or rather is true to you. A part of you that resonates with your inner man. Maybe you unconsciously picked up a personality that is not true to you, because you felt unsafe. Maybe you took a career path that you thought would make someone else happy yet you’re miserable. Maybe you got into a romantic relationship where you constantly have to dim your light in order for the other person to feel relevant. Whatever it is, just know that you are seen and you are heard.
Life sometimes needs you to take it by its horns. To take the lemons and turn them into lemonade. Of course, it requires you to build yourself up; to equip yourself in order to tackle the hurdles that come in life. To equip yourself mentally, spiritually, emotionally, socially, relationally, financially etc. not on some sort of revenge mission. But in order to fight for your dreams, to fight for yourself.
I used to be extremely shy. I would be sited in rooms that I knew what to say but would end up just mumbling words that probably didn’t make sense. I heard a joke where someone said that when they are thinking about how to say something in their head, it is perfect but when it is time to speak what comes out is incoherency. I would walk around feeling beaten by life because I would keep replaying in my head the moments when I mumbled unintelligible words.
One thing that I learnt during the process, the process of sort of coming back to myself, was that there were some skills that I lacked. One of them was not knowing how to articulate myself or even how to stand up for myself. I had to learn that. I had to read and listen to resources on this topic. And then catch myself whenever I wanted to for instance take a blame for something I didn’t do just to avoid confrontation. I would have to say to myself things like, ‘It is not your battle.’ Because in reality it wasn’t but I had taught myself to ‘keep peace.’ This artificial peace. I had to retrain myself. I heard a life coach put it this way, reparent yourself.
To be able to recognize say an environment that seeks to muzzle you, you have to train yourself. To train yourself so that when you see it you are able to avoid it altogether or stand up for yourself. And sometimes when your voice has been muzzled for so long, some of the people will be shocked to hear you stand up for yourself. Do it anyway.
This passage offers a message of empowerment, resilience, and self-acceptance. It inspires readers to embrace their uniqueness, speak their truth, and reclaim the parts of themselves that may have been lost or suppressed. It serves as a poignant reminder that true fulfillment comes from living authentically and unapologetically.