I have always thought that the defining moments of a man’s life seldom come as we expect them to. I believed, and fantasized of what i anticipated eagerly to be my defining moment as a day i will probably have a live interview with Oprah over my great achievements, or an honorary award over the success of my best-selling book, or sit with the president of the United States, or a day when i’ll stand on one of the greatest platforms ever an address the youth in my country about issues relevant to our growth and development as a nation.

While all those instances could be great defining moments in a man’s life, i have come to realize and understand that everyday is filled with defining moments. From the moment we wake up, we define ourselves when we decide to get up and pray, read, exercise, or sleep an extra half hour. We define ourselves when we call in sick even though we could go to work, we define ourselves when we spend long hours watching unproductive things on TV instead of reading a book. And we define ourselves when we refuse to take conscious steps towards personal growth and development but opt to blame our government policies and leaders for the quality of our lives.

Each passing minute of every 24 hours of a day presents to us unlimited opportunities waiting to transform our lives. Some take advantage of these opportunities while others don’t. Life is full of good and bad choices, there is no middle ground. To choose a good choice is to reject a bad one. You and i deserve the best, i’m sincerely amazed at people who think they are asking too much by wanting to be successful or become very rich. Its almost as if its a territory that belongs to someone else but not them. I don’t know if they were raised to believe that success means you are greedy or becoming rich means you are selfish or prey on the poor, or whatever, but its definitely a mindset that needs to be worked on.

Honestly, you really deserve the best, don’t let others opinion about wealth cloud your desires. So while you sit and fantasize about what you can be, why don’t you take intentional steps to becoming that man, or woman of your dreams. Take steps to becoming that person you have always dreamt of being. Bring the future closer. Ask yourself, if i were to become that person of my dreams today, How will i walk? How will i talk? How will i relate with people, How will i carry myself? How will i dress? What will be my priorities? Now, instead of waiting in your world of fantasies for those dreams to become reality, why don’t you start living that life now? This will be a lot interesting because when you eventually become that person of your dreams, you won’t have to make many adjustments to your lifestyle, because you are already living it.

I dare you to take responsibility for your life today. Take responsibility for how you manage your life, your time, and resources. While you wait for the ”big defining moments” of your life, take full advantage of the ”small ones” that present themselves every minute, which really are the rehearsals that prepare us for the big moments of our lives. Open your eyes and recognize the life-transforming opportunities awaiting your grasp. Start reading newspapers and magazines, they carry a bulk of information and opportunities that can be useful to you, enroll for a professional exam, get a blog for those poems of yours, buy that guitar, go learn fashion while waiting for your call-up letter to NYSC, start French lessons, apply for that job, etc. That may be a step closer to the realization of your dreams.

A wise man once said there are two types of pain, and we must choose one of them. The pain of discipline and the pain of regret. Choosing one averts the other, refusing to choose automatically enrols you as a recepient of the other. Step out, there is a world of unfattomable opportunities out there.