Potentiality Digest: Actualise Your Dream

By Sodeeq Abdulakeem Sulyman

In the book Responsible Living: Live to Fulfill Your Potential,” which I co-authored with my late brother, three principles formed the major discourse of what the Chapter One – Responsibly Blessed – focuses on. The principles – I Wish, I Can and I Am – have been the underlying phases our lives are being formed, and I firmly believe those principles will be continuously recurring in the trajectory of living our dream.

Everyone one of us has a fantasy – even a man who knows not how the fantasy would manifest also points to amazing things you could never dreamed of. It is not that people can’t realised their fantasies; but the questions are, are they sparking the illumination to lights the dark side of theirs? Are they taking steps to work on themselves to birth the reality of their fantasies? Is the proportion of andrenalin needed to shift from wishes to what they will be proud of, flows in them?

No question is meaningless when it comes to doing what will add meaning to your life. If you don’t consider the significant things on your quest for relevance in life, in the struggles of steering your life on track, believe you and me, you will position yourself to be the best candidate for irrelevance! Les Brown aptly affirmed that “Life is not going to give you what you want, it will give you what you are.”

Actualising your dream is about getting yourself charged to face whatever nature throws against you as you are striving to access your own deposits of promises; it is about righteously using what you have to unlock the doors of opportunities and it is about living and approaching everyday of your life with positive attitude and winning mentality. You have to be filling your energy and refueling your guts through the words of Donald J Trump that “…start every day with a clean slate. Give yourself a new beginning by opening up your mind.”

Winners don’t loose interest in their dreams when they fail, only fail people do that. Champions don’t get bothered with the unfavourable waves of the games, only losers do that. Victors don’t get knocked down by failures and rejections, only victims get discouraged by those things. Thus, for your dream to be actualised, you must affirm to yourself that the major obstacle that can stop you is yourself.

This is what Kamala Harris did. Apart from being a citizen of America, no other major requirements qualified her for the post of the vice president of the United States. She is a woman; a Black American of Indian mother. That she belongs to the women folk was a major obstacle in her quest of actualising her dream. And because she is coming to do the unthinkable, an aspiration most people perceived to be impossible, she amounts to nothing!

She started with the belief that you can’t do great things one day, but you can do little things every day, which will amount to great things one day. She began nurturing herself towards the call to servitude. In 2010, she was elected attorney general of California, winning with a narrow margin of less than one percent, which thus makes her the first female and the first African American to hold the post.

In early 2015, she declared her candidacy for senate seat, and on the campaign trail she called for immigration and criminal-justice reforms, increment of the minimum wage, and protection of women’s reproductive rights. Her calls were questioned by many, which led to them objecting her candidacy. But if your desire motivates you to be known by many, integrity must make you to be known for one thing by many. This attribute vindicated her during her trying times.

In January 2019, she published her memoir “The Truths We Hold: An American Journey” and declared her aspiration to contest for the post of vice president of the United States. Also many people stood against her because of her confrontational styles against defendants during senate plenaries. But you know what? When you have qualities that make you indispensable, all other things become an option. This made her to be considered for the post in August, 2020.

On the 6th November, 2020, along with Joe Biden, the democrats presidential candidate, Kamala Harris was announced as the vice president-elect of the United States. Her story portray a sheer fervour for changing the narrative and perception of womanhood. And today, she is emblazoned with victory that defeats identity. She is robed with the regalia of honour that speaks beyond gender, race and class.

Today brings another opportunity to actualise your dream and occupy your place on the planet earth. Don’t let the fear of losing discourage you from pursuing your worthy calls. Barack Obama charges, “If you run you stand a chance of losing, but if you don’t run you’ve already lost.” I enjoin you to never hold back in turning on the light of your dream.