#GETOUTOFYOURLANE

Taking the time to figure out who you are is important, most of us exist never bothering to truly “self define”. We use cues from our surroundings, messages, and hints from friends and family about who we are and who we ought to be. We never bother to consider alternatives of who we could be or consider that maybe, just maybe, the cues we have at our disposal are limited and could limit our own 'self-view' and how we go through life. If I were born elsewhere in the world would I believe this is the right way to exist and interact with the world? We just do, accept and repeat patterns set before us for others to do the same after us. We question those that dare to do differently and even project our own insecurities making us “haters”,  all because of our limited world view and limited “viable opportunities”. We question others strides and then proceed to belittle them so that our little minds can deal with the fact that we might just be “losers” when in fact we did not apply ourselves. A story for another day. 

We go around the world never knowing what we could experience beyond the psycho and social borders set. We even believe that some feats are for a select few, that they are “the chosen ones”. Like with anything in this wonderfully chaotic, unfair world we exist in, it takes hard work, commitment and a bit of luck, whether you believe in creating your own luck or some cosmic incident to make things happen, but it all starts with wanting to, having the desire to. Considering an alternative reality knowing that we are not trees we could move from where we are, making a decision and completely changing ourselves. Damn even trees can be moved these days with extra effort. 

We stay in our lanes, we stay wishing and hoping that we get a big break but never reckoning that we can create this “break”. Our scarcity mentality keeps us bound, our socioeconomic predispositions keep us living below our potential and we continue the cycle. Life is hard, life is real, life is brutal and I am in no way dismissing people’s misfortunes, hardships and mental states. It seems we relinquish our power or want to outsource the responsibility to others, the people we work for, our parents, our governments always them never us. 

If we never take the time to question the identities imposed on us by the ideologies of society or our “predispositions” or intentionally break “generational curses” we will always fall into the same patterns, we will never chart a new course. If the youth of 76 never questioned or chose not to rebel against an identity being imposed on them by the government of the time, chances are we’d all be a version of Afrikaners. Okay, that was a weak example but I hope you get my point right. We should go against the facts presented to us, unlearn behaviours, you know that loosely used phrase “letting go of who we’re meant to be, to become who we want to be”, that is true. If we look at any person, who has made an impact in the world we see how if they had stayed in their “lanes”, they would have not achieved anything. Look at political heroes, people who liberated others in some way. The likes of Thomas Sankara, Nelson Mandela, Harriet Tubman, or leading business people and personalities like Oprah Winfrey, Jay Z, Richard Maponya, can you imagine what would have happened had they stayed in 'their lanes' believed the cues and voices from their surroundings about who they should become.