E
nle beun o, E si kuu deede iwoyio.
Cultural
customs and popular habits seem to swing, pendulum-like, from one
extreme to another. At times, people seek adventure for their leisure and high
- risk challenges in their work. They revel in swift changes, swooping exuberantly
from one trend to the next. Then at other times, as a society, people swing
back to the stable and predictable. People cocoon at home instead of roaming,
they vacation at nearby instead of exotic destinations, and they invest
conservatively instead of riskily. You can almost hear them crying out, “ No
more change. ”Then times change again — the pendulum swings
back, and the giddy excitement
returns. People abandon stable jobs for the exhilaration of joining a start -
up company, and they travel the world on their vacations lusting for the latest
thrill. Are human beings creatures of habit,
preferring the reassurance of the familiar, or do humans love the spice that
variety brings to life? Considering the complexity of the human race, the answer is that both are true.
One of the most important distinctions you need to learn to make is between
those things in your life that should be constant and unchangeable and
the kind of change you should welcome. Sometimes you can control the
change your experience, and occasionally you can only react as a canoeist does
caught in the rapids — coping with the wild ride of change by lunging with your
paddles to avoid the largest boulders and prevent the canoe from capsizing.
Other than that, you try to hang on until the ride calms down and your ability
to make meaningful changes to your course increases. If you are having a bad
time, you can rest assured with the knowledge that things will be different a
few months later. Very few people would have described their present lives
accurately had they been asked to predict the course of events a
year or two earlier. People’s lives are constantly changing — that is part of
what it means to be human. The other part is the yearning for complete
stability with no changes at all to shake up the predictability of existence. The
trick is to resist granting it control over your emotional and psychic state.
The human part of your being revels in change. You constantly find within change
all kinds of unexpected opportunities to grow and prosper. We
celebrate with you if you were born in October. Wishing
you prosperity today and always. Have a wonderful October everybody!
Olusegun
Thompson
President,
YAJ.
