I attended a training exercise today and guess what? Everyone was talking about trying to explore their creative talents and being unable to go through because of challenges. The most common challenge was finance. The facilitator had to correct the mindset by stating clearly that holding on to the idea that all you need is money is terrible. You may have needs, challenges etc. but money may not be the answer.
Sometimes, there is the tendency to keep looking at money as if its presence will suddenly change everything, but it is not always so. A wise man once said, preparation plus opportunity presents a miracle. We can look deeper, we can develop ourselves, read books, meet people to learn from, or work as volunteers to pursue the dreams that are tattooed in the depths of our souls; but getting a sum of money to carry out a project that is not well planned or prepared for, is like throwing money on the bare floor and expecting it to yield profit.
Sometimes you look out for opportunities so hard and when they come, you realize that you lack something that is needful. I have seen job seekers send out lots of applications and forget to prepare for the tension that comes when they are face to face with a panel of stern-looking gentlemen and ladies. They fidget from start to finish and forget all the mind-blowing phrases they memorized. I remember when I was a little girl, I had to sing in a church I was not used to, I sang halfway and forgot a line in the middle before I eventually finished the song. That was an opportunity, but I was not prepared for it. Fast-forward to secondary school, I had to lead a song in church for the first time and made another mistake. Fast forward again to my undergraduate days, I had to lead a song in a gathering for the first time and missed my key, I remember feeling like entering the ground afterwards because it was a disaster. The challenge was not that I could not sing, neither was it that I did not score the songs properly. The challenge was that I did not prepare for the first time feeling, the eyes that would envelop me and the silence that would herald my singing.
Have you ever hoped for something you eventually did not get, only to realize that you knew someone who could help you get it easier, just that you did not look that way in time? Same goes for money; when you keep looking down on yourself because you do not have the money you think you require, you end up playing down on your mental capacity, because you have what it takes to create avenues for wealth but are not taking advantage of them. It is painful when you see capable hands tell you they cannot run petty trades because they do not have enough money to start. You know they can, that it is just a mindset, but there they stand paralysed by thoughts, denied by their inability to explore their inborn abilities and the resources around them.
Do not idolize money, it can pay your bills but it should not be the foundation of your success, so that even if you lose it, the same brains and hands that have created it can yet create again.