Every major transformation begins with an encounter. This is what I call the epoch of transformation — the defining moment in your life that marks a significant shift or begins the trajectory of growth and advancement towards destiny. Can you recall any such moment in your life?
Most times, those moments do not come loudly — they appear in chaos, periods of failure, in unexpected places and from unexpected people. Like they say, opportunity appears in coveralls like work and that’s why most people miss it. In the same way, the seasons that define your journey of transformation and push you into destiny often come disguised, you truly need to DISCERN it or you will miss it. That’s why you are reading this article now!
In this article, I’ll share some stories of my own personal epochs of transformation and show you the 7 steps I took which can help you step into your own destiny.
Divine Awakening
Every journey of transformation towards destiny actualization begins with a divine awakening. You will continue to live an ordinary, ineffective, mediocre life until something or some one comes to push you higher up. Divine awakening is the catalyst that evokes and accelerates us to the place of destiny manifestation. It comes through people, events, things, and even moments of personal restlessness, dissatisfaction. It could also come through visions, dreams, revelations, prophecies, and messages from people. It doesn’t matter how it comes, the most important thing is to RECOGNIZE those seasons.
Have you heard this popular story of an eagle that grew up with chickens? The tale has it that a farmer once went out into the field and discovered an eaglet egg. He took the egg, brought it home and placed it among His roost. Over time, the egg hatched and grew up among the chickens. Yes, it was a bird but it was supposed to be a different bird — bigger, better and soaring higher than the chickens. However, it learned the behaviour of the fowls and started behaving like the fowls. Simply, it was living below potential and operating at a level it wasn’t meant to be.
As this eagle grew up, it began to notice the birds in the sky. Every time it saw a bird in the sky, something gnawed within it, telling it “You’re supposed to be there.” This caused the eagle to become isolated. Most times the farmer would come and take it into the roost assuming it was sick because of the unusual quietness. One day, the eagle encountered a futurist that came to help it realize its purpose. Day after day, he came proclaiming to the Eagle “Eagle thou art an eagle pointing it to the sky.” Whenever this happened, the eagle would flap its giant wings and try to fly but then he’d hear the other fowls calling it back. That continued for some time, until the eagle was able to break free and fly away never to come back to its former state. This is the picture of divine awakening.
For me, it happened at a conference in my 300L in the university. That day as I listened to the Pastor teach and share his story, something stirred within me. It marked the beginning of my journey towards purpose and destiny. I left that event with what I later called the F.A.S.T concept — to be a financially, academically, spiritually towering Christian. I realized that I could live an excellent life even as a student and much more represent Christ at the apex. It became the foundation for journey and evolution.
Moments of awakening do not come with full clarity. They come in bits but often strong enough to awake your dormant potential.
Discovery of Purpose
Your response to seasons of awakening can determine whether you maximize or nullify them. Those moments are the time you are awakened to the realization of your potential. You are made aware that there is a reason why you have been created. Your response to such awakened periods is to seek to discover why God has brought you on this earth. Also, like moments of awakening, discovering your purpose is not a one-off event and doesn’t come with full pictures. However, there are pointers that help you to discover your purpose. These pointers have been summarized into 3 Ps’:
Passion: It is often asked, “if money and time are no longer the problem, what is that one thing you’d be doing without getting tired?” This question is often asked to evoke discovery of your passion that leads to purpose. Take note, Not all passion leads to purpose yet it is impossible to discover your purpose without knowing your passion. There is always a correlation between passion and purpose, whether you go ahead to fulfill them or not. Do not neglect your passions. Your passion is not for fun — out of your numerous passions, one can elevate you to the heights of destiny.
Problem: What problem or pattern do you constantly notice, in an environment, family, culture, system, church? etc. The problems you persistently discover are pointers to the solution you have been created to provide. Do not despise problems. Every moment of crisis is an opportunity for somebody to step in and lead the future. Inventors understood this and that’s why inventions they brought into this world outlives them long after they are gone. Problems hold the key to generational relevance if you can discover and maximize them. Look around you and within, what problems keep jumping at you?
Proficiency: Your proficiency is an intersection of your passion and the problems you have been created to solve. God has deposited within you the gifts, talents, abilities to fulfil your purpose. Understanding these giftings naturally reveal the area where God has called you to function in. This is why you cannot neglect your passion because your passion is often the manifestation of your gifts and talents. If you love writing, do not take it casually. It could be a pointer that you are an author.
The juxtaposition of these 3 Ps’ passion, problem and proficiency yield purpose. It is the three of them that reveal the “God-Dimension” (Dr.Sam Ekundayo) within you. Your God-dimension is that predominant area of gifting which only you have been uniquely created to fulfil. This is impossible without discovery.
Development of Vision, Values and Virtues
No matter how great your purpose is, it is at the mercy of these three powerful Vs’ — your vision, the values that guide it and the virtues (character) that sustain them. Many young people shy away from this conversation because it is not helpful.
The difference in the standard of living between one person and another could be attributed to this step. Those who embrace this step in the journey of transformation EVOLVE into higher and better versions of themselves while those who neglect or trivialize it, pay the price in regret — living substandard lives. Development is what makes life seem unfair. I dare state that it contributes to the caste system of the world, to a large extent — rich and poor, wise and foolish, educated and uneducated etc.
Developing oneself is akin to the refinement of gold. The process of refining gold unlocks its profitability and in the same manner, when you develop yourself, it unleashes the greatness of your potential. This is your sole responsibility — a decision you can choose to embrace or ignore. Choose life. The essence of development is for optimization. According to Dr. Linus Okorie (foremost transformational leader and founder, GOTNI Leadership Center), in a research, he discovered that 60% of human beings in earth are unoptimized (undeveloped), 35% are partially optimized (partly developed) and only 5% are fully optimized (fully developed).
Developing yourself transcends you above the average person and distinguishes you as a valuable contributor to the world. Therefore, you must pay attention to your vision, values and virtues that enable you to become a valuable individual.
Vision: I define vision as the driving force of your life. There’s no significant achievement without vision. According to the Law of Vision: things are created twice, first in the mind and then outwardly.
Vision is a function of your mind’s eyes. It is the capacity to have foresight (seeing the future) based on insight (from within presently) inspired by hindsight (shaped by past experiences or circumstances. As Dr Myles Munroe often said “eyes that look are common but eyes that see are rare.”
You must have a clearly defined and compelling mental picture of your preferred future. What do you see? Some people see hardship, failure, labels and the negative opinions of men. They fail to see the greatness within them and what God has called them to become. No, you must develop the ability to see beyond today and interpret events in your life as they should be not as they are now or as they have been. Don’t be morphed into impaired vision because of today’s circumstance.
Values: Your values are the anchors that hold your vision and keep you from drifting when the going gets tough. Values give you laser-focus and without them, your vision is void.
You need to develop the right value-system. In a world heavily driven by moral decadence, your values help you to stay afloat in pursuit of purpose and destiny. Values are the foundation upon which an individual, society, organizations and civilizations are formed. They are the spines and joints that hold any operation in place. Absence of values creates a vacuum.
Joe Tye defined values as “deeply internalized philosophical guide that deeply influences goal-setting, decision making, conflict resolution, and more generally how one lives.” Your value system is often a product of your life’s philosophy which is often shaped by your experiences.
Categorically, there are different kinds of values but you need these five categories for an effective productive life: Spiritual, Social, Financial, Family and Personal values. The reason is because these categories affect every area of our lives and determine to a large extent, our successes or failures.
Virtues: As they say, virtue is its own reward. The beauty of transformation is not only in the outcome but in the journey. At the end of the whole process, it is about who you’ve become. Most people focus only on the outward outcome and forget about the internal outcome.
Where vision fails and values falter, it is the quality of virtues that you have developed that will sustain you. It influences your attitude towards life, people and challenges. Your virtues can take you farther than your charisma or talents. The world is not in need of more people with great gifts and talents, it is looking for those who are grounded in character no matter how gifted they are.
Deployment, Distribution and Dividends
This is the stage where you step boldly into destiny. The long journey is always worth it in the end, if you submit to these processes.
Your destiny is the reason for your existence. There is an assignment that God has created you to uniquely fulfill. Until you begin manifesting that, you have not truly begun living. Service to humanity is the bedrock of destiny and deploying your developed gifts and talents is the only way to manifest destiny. This is why you need transformation — in order to contribute highly and effectively to others’ journey.
You must create a distribution system through which you “empty” yourself of all the resources that God has deposited inside you. Through your services, products, ideas and more you must create a system that makes it possible and effective for others to experience your uniqueness. For example, my books and this blog you are reading now is part of my distribution system. You must intentionally find ways to reach as many people as you can and increase your impact.
Here’s the sweet spot: The greatest rewards in life come from living a purposeful life. When you step boldly into your destiny, it accrues dividends that are beyond your wildest dreams. You never know the power of just taking one step into your destiny until you try. The rewards that come with transformation are numerous and incredible, it just takes the decision to start somewhere. You begin with one step but when you look back, you’d have covered milestones with many beautiful benefits attached.
Apart from the material rewards that come with transformation, the joy and satisfaction of contributing to another person’s story is its own reward. Imagine tens, hundreds and thousands of lives being changed just because you took that one bold step.
Stop letting fear hold you back. Rise with courage like the eagle and let today be that turning point where you begin the audacious journey of transformation — into destiny. And if you are already on that path, don’t relent. Never look back and keep pressing until you arrive at that point where your generation calls you blessed because of your persistence.
Do you want to read more about this? Get a copy of my book: UNBROKEN: Discover Powerful Keys for Resilience, Survival and Lasting Success in the 21st Century.
I would love to read from you, how has this changed your life or helped you?
