When searching for answers: Major options first, minor options last.
- Vicent Nemeyimana
- December 18, 2014
- Motivation and Inspiration
Back in the days when I was 10-12 years, we would be given fresh maize from the garden to roast. There were these kinds whose grains were of different colors (matoni in rufumbira) and those were our favorites. So we would make fire and start roasting. It was our habit to always start roasting those that we didn’t like much and then the favorites (matoni) would be the last to be roasted and eaten so as to mark the end of eating in a style with the best of what we had (Kwikuza in rufumbira)
One day, trouble came. The arrangement was as usual (non-favorites first and favorites last). But when it was the time to enjoy the best, my older brothers shot themselves inside the kitchen and oh what a tragedy! All my best maize was eaten up. A civil war began and still I lost. It was a terrible day for us kids who knew that it was a key to happiness to always have our best as the last. What happened next? We cried out loudly but we couldn’t have our best and favorite maize back. We kept crying till our tears got over and, eeh, we grew up and stopped. The next thing was what usually happens when our anger cools down. It was what to do next time: We resolved to always eat our best first and the non-favorites last and it worked.
What is my point today? The other day I went to get a debt from my friend and she asked, “How much do you need?” The truth is that I needed 575,000 Uganda shillings but I somehow thought it could be so much. So I said, “I only need 400,000 Uganda shillings”. To my surprise, it seemed little money to her and she granted my wish instantly. And as I matched out, I wondered what hell I was thinking not to mention the exact amount of money that I needed! That’s how we make losses and even embarrass ourselves every time we put ourselves low and go for weak options bypassing bigger and major ones.
Also, yesterday I tried people who were not close to me, who even didn’t know me well for assistance and they all turned me down. And in the evening I turned to my long time friend and the assistance was delivered and I wondered why I even wasted my time telling the other minor options.
I am sure you have done these mistakes as well, maybe even more than I have done. Every time you face choices, you like going for the weak choices first rather than the stronger ones first. You could be thinking that you are not worthy of the bigger options, you may be thinking that the bigger options might not respond to you and thus get embarrassed. Sometimes we are so afraid of failure that we avoid trying for something better. We better change the attitude otherwise we are losers.
Another time you face a challenge and you have options to have your solutions, go for the bigger options first. You see, the chances are that you will be accepted by the major option and have major and bigger results or you will be lowered a little and have the minor results. But there are likely no chances for the one who goes for minor options: He will either have them (which are still unsatisfactory) or miss them (which means total zero or failure). Whenever they put food to eat, start with your favorite dish. Whenever you have people to call, call the ones you feel most first and others later. Whenever you are asked to choose, choose the best first and the good later. If you wanna go for a lady, take the most beautiful one first and so on and so on.
I know the lesson by Jesus of sitting behind in a party and wait on the party’s owner to promote you to the front seats but this is not the case. The case here is discernment between what is right and wrong, what you deserve as God’s creature, the wisdom in making and struggling for the right things. Don’t waste your time and energy on minor options, do it on major options. Yeah, we struggle so much in life, we fast, we invest what we have only to discover later that what we struggled for wasn’t worth our strength, time and knowledge. Is that what you want?
For those who read my article, “The whole world waits for your orders, press them”, you will agree with me that life always returns back something for whatever order we press in. While life won’t serve us what we didn’t order, it can never fail to serve us something once we order. For example, if you go to school with an aim of becoming a doctor, you may end up becoming a lawyer but this is still better than becoming none.
So you have got the point: Best things first and others later. This is the principle of growth and advancement. It is the principle of heaven: Our souls first, our bodies later. Teach this to others.
The Complete You Project.
