Drawing lessons from rivers

Tracy Mutowekuziva
You have to have confidence in your ability and then be tough enough to follow through. — Rosalynn Smith Carter. Rivers take a winding course as they move downstream, they avoid protrusions and hard rocks.
This is the reason why they are not straight, but are crooked.

Similary with people, what makes us crooked is the fact that we don’t want to follow procedure, we just want an easy way out of things and we also want to go where everything and everyone is going.

We just want to go with the flow of what we think the society will accept.

The world we are living in today is a fast paced world everything is just instant, from preparing a meal to getting married or even a job, everything can be done in a second.

However, the quality of products is usually seen in the time it takes to prepare that particular product, which is why instant meals are hazardous to health and which is also why instant marriages don’t last.

In Japan, they spent at least 13 hours to make an average Toyota Corona whereas it takes six months to make a Rolls Royce.

In this sense it is clear that more time is high quality and easy way out, is poor quality.

What makes us crooked is the fact that we try to do things the easy way.

We want quick money and quick everything .We are also crooked because we don’t want to stand out for what we want.

We just want to go with the flow. We just want to take the path with less resistance, where people won’t criticise us for what we have planned to do.

We don’t listen to our hearts, we don’t do what we are good at, we usually do what our ears are hearing.

We just tend to do what everyone is doing. Why? Because we hate criticism.

We are afraid of criticism so much that we choose to give up our dreams, we refuse to practise our talents just because no one ever did that or because the society thinks that’s not the way to go.

We will only grow and stand out and make a difference the moment we start to follow the path that we want and believe in.

That will make us straight. Imagine if only rivers just flowed downwards, ignoring obstacles. We would be having straight rivers and steady rivers.

I am fascinated by the growth of chicken business in Zimbabwe, you find out that if in a village or location one person decides to breed chicken within two weeks the whole village or location will be flooded with chicken runs.

This could either be because we don’t want to be different and the fact that someone is doing this and that to make money, l will just do the same.

Or because we were already having dreams on rearing chickens but we were just afraid of what people in our location will think of us breeding chickens in a town and the moment we see someone doing it we just start doing what we had already planned to.

People want approval from the society which is not very necessary because we just have to follow our dreams without having someone to back us from behind.

People waste a lot of time looking for approval instead of developing their talents and focusing on their dreams.

The mere fact that the majority is doing a certain thing does not mean that is the way to go. Numbers do not right a wrong, its still a wrong.

Stop looking for numbers just do what you are called to do and stop following the mainstream or the paths of less resistance.

Just dare to be different and stop going on that path just because it has less resistance, just be straight.