How to Find Yourself

Chapter 4

Change your Perspective About Your Life

It’s hard to change your perspective about life because there are many external factors that shape the way you view life. Sometimes the external factors overshadow your perspective for too long. For example, if you come from a humble background, it can be hard to imagine that people from a wealthy background can be good people.

It may come from the fact that there are so many well off people who did you wrong in the past or did something in whatever environment you grew up in. Some wealthy people have committed atrocities that have affected communities for decades. In turn, you may sabotage yourself from actually gaining financial freedom because you associate wealth with evil instead of associating wealth with freedom.

The problem with changing someone's perspective is that you cannot just put it in their head. It comes from an experience that people have to undergo to understand the meaning from deep inside their souls and be able to accept that their view of reality is flawed. 

I’m going to give you another example.  There are so many times in the past that I have been told that I have a lot of potential in different fields that I’ve tried my hand in.  However, I rarely explore that potential because I have no passion for it.  I love opening people’s minds to new experiences, new ideas, and new ways to view life. In most of the professions that we have right now, they are centred on making money. 

In fact, most companies do not care who they hurt in the process as long as their profit margins do not get hurt.  So you see, I have the potential to make a company a lot of profits but my perspective of life is that I should be making a positive change in people’s life change.  So whenever I’m in a meeting and the boss is complaining about the profit margins, all I can think about is how this company could probably be changing people’s lives for better but all they care about is their profit margins. 

Now there are many people who’ve tried to change my perspective on that I and I still think that my way of thinking is good for me because I love making a change in people’s lives. I mean I’m not rich or anything and I get what they’re saying, because they’re basically saying that if I ever bothered to actually maximise my potential in making money I could be a very rich woman. The thing is I don’t want to be a rich woman. I just want to be able to live a good life, pay my bills, and save a little for the future.

I want to be a woman who makes a positive impact in other people’s lives.  The funniest thing is I always thought that I would grow older and want to be really rich. Live in a very fancy neighbourhood, drive a nice car, attend galas, do thrilling stuff and buy expensive things. 

That changed one day. When I was a young girl the first African woman won a Nobel award she was from my country her name was Professor Wangari Mathai. We watched the Nobel awards ceremony that year for some reason because it was broadcasted i  local channels. I watched her give the speech and I wanted to win a Nobel price. 

There were documentaries about her journey to getting the Nobel Prize and how she fought for human rights as well as environmental justice. She founded the Green Belt Movement that planted over 51 million trees, fought for public lands from being privatised, fought against political injustice and human rights.

She got so much pushback back then, was physically assaulted to the point that someone just pulled a chunk of hair on her head, but she believed in the cause. Life made sense for me for some reason after learning the professor’s story. She changed my perspective from wanting to be this rich, recognised person who will continue the family legacy, bring honor to the family.

I began wanting to make a difference in someone’s life.  As I write this book, I’m not looking for fame. All I hope to achieve is reach just one person who will read my book, maybe read a chapter and it will change their life for better. 

I know it’s not much, I know it sounds cheesy, I know that it’s not what the world and society expects of me, but it is something that I strongly feel about.  I believe that changing you perspective is helpful to because once you leave the environment that you have been raised in, the environment that you are currently in, go into a different environment, one that is so different from what you are used to,  you’re going to see your life from a different angle.