Friday Motivation : It Is Better To Fail In Originality Than To Succeed In Imitation.
By Phumzile Mavimbela
Herman Melvile once said " it is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation", yeap, this statement is one of the hardest truth there is to swallow, it is sweet to lips yet bitter to the belly. however its consumption is paramount to the nutrition of our growth. Because we live in a world which has embraced replication, imitation and wanna be's.
We have become so content with embracing fakeness and ingenuity by virtue of wanting to fit in. Not being authentic has become a social norm such that people would choose to fail in pursuing who they are not than to fail while trying to discover their truest potential. The fear of being unique by virtue of seeking originality has caused us to adapt into living in the realm of our alter egos while trying as best as we can to replica them .
The question at hand today is, is it all worth it ? What's better, what would you rather trial and error in ? Is it in failing and learning from your mistakes while tying to pursue something you love and were born to do, or is it in pursuing something which the society and generation 2.0 has deemed cool.
We have become so comfortable in living in the confines of the agenda set by the media such that what we consume through the streams of this river no longer refresh us but intoxicate us. The media which was 'made' to build and empower us now (at times ) causes us to self destruct. It may be possible that the point I am trying to drive across has been fashioned to be cliche' and thus almost irrelevant.
However if we were to instill the pattern and culture of being true to self and what self is capable of, only then perhaps we could even start triumphing over unsettled feelings boiling within us, invoked by continual attempts and failure while pursuing who we are not . Perhaps the peace we are desperately seeking is found in us accepting ourselves, potential, strengths and using exactly that to put one foot forward, easily and steadily, ignoring every external pressure. As the new week fast approaches, approach the new day, with a clear mind, zeal and the confidence to be apologetically who you are without fear or failure.
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