Is this You? Can’t it be?
This first time I saw this picture, I was tempted to post an article about it, but I refrained, somehow in my mind, its time had not yet come. I decided to allow time and thought to pass over it, to ponder what could be the reasons, stories or excuses behind this event.
I used this picture in a seminar I spoke in last week, and the immediate response after understanding the picture was laughter. I went on to ask them if they were not laughing at themselves. What had the owner of this slippers done wrong?
1. He/she secured his/her cheap slippers with more expensive paddlock.
2. The slippers and the paddlock can be carried away (he/she should have chained it to the closest electric pole :))
3. He/she was so concerned about the security of his/her cheap slippers. (Rather than the mentality of this is so cheap, who will steal it)
4. and many more…
Try matching them with these numbers..
(1) But tell me, aren’t you using >1/3 of your life to secure and maintain in a cheap job compared to the real value of your life? Aren’t you worth more than what you have locked down? (imagine u are the paddlock)
(2) Is it not also true that what you call security is only as secure as the pole to which it is tied or untied? Haven’t you come to terms that no matter where you are and what you do, life is a risk and by being overly security concious makes you riddiculous? Are there not some things you are protecting that if they really got stolen will not be so bad? Have we not become prisoners in our own mansions? (imagine you are the slippers)
(3) That job/opportunity/business that you are compromising your values and bending over backwards for, is it that important? Aren’t you paying too much a price (perhaps your soul) for the real worth of that experience? (imagine your opportunities as the slippers and the paddlock what you used to secure it)
(4) ….I think the solution to all this is a pursuit of happiness which breaks the yoke of fear. The motivation of all such mentality is fear, other things I believe are dependants. There is a small article I believe will set you free…
“For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.” - Alfred D Souza
So stop waiting until you finish school, until you go back to school, until you lose ten pounds, until you gain ten pounds, until you have kids, until your kids leave the house, until you start work, until you retire, until you get married, until you get divorced, until Friday night, until Sunday morning, until you get a new car or home, until your car or home is paid off, until spring, until summer, until fall, until winter, until you are off welfare, until the first or fifteenth, until your song comes on, until you’ve had a drink, until you’ve sobered up, until you die, until you are born again to decide that there is no better time than right now to be happy…Happiness is a journey, not a destination.
Work like you don’t need money, Love like you’ve never been hurt, And dance like no one’s watching. -Unknown (attributed to two authors)
Hello. I am 
Good talk,
Am sure very many of us will be embarrased at ourselves if we realy take time to find out how much time and resources which includes money we have spent protecting and securing what is of lesser importance like this, and often leave out the more important things.
Stuffs like this are what makes your site thick! More of such please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Deolu,
I couldn’t have put it any better myself. My brain is constantly being assaulted with the need to move beyond my preconcieved barriers and as you rightly noted, one of the worst enemies of a man’s progress is what he percieves as security.
You’re working a shitty job and you know it, but you refuse to quit because “at least I get a regular income”. That is the kind of crappy justification and false security that keeps a man leaving way beneath his potentials.
Life itself is a risk and I believe that if you don’t take any risks, you don’t get any rewards.
The time for action is now, for there’s no time like the present.
The final quote in your post sums it all up perfectly. If anyone reads this and doesn’t experience an Eureka!! moment, whoa!! they must need brain surgery or something…lol
Thanks for sounding the horn for the re-awakening, ‘cos a whole lot of our youth seem to have gone back to sleep.
kassablanca, this one na stone o, it looks like you are hitting it hard, those of us who have ears let us hear, what the spirit is saying to the church, but have it in mind that “despite the hunters whistle the dog wey go lost go lost”. I’m wondering what kind of dog this luminus guy is…. hmmm
Thanks for the piece.
Any useful hints on HOW to be a NEXT or LOAKE pair of shoes rather the slippers?
LOL!
This is incredible!!
@Kenny - Thanks for the comments
I sincerely believe that if we are able to overcome most of our fears, we’ll reach on to higher and better things. Someone said that our greatest fear isn’t that we are inadequate, but its that we are powerful beyond measure. We lock ourselves down because we wonder what the world will feel if we shine too brightly… e.t.c.
@Luminus - Thanks Too. I feel you strongly on that enemy being security thingie. Many die before death. Small wonder the strongest chain to venturing is the fear of death.
A friend of mine braved the odds and resigned from a company lately, only to find out 3 months later that everybody else had not been paid since he left. Can you imagine what would have happened if he had out of fear and security conciousness, waited?
@Biola - Na so we see am oh…it looks ridiculous, then you look again and you discover you were staring into a mirror. amandi a neze oh.
@Bolaji - Tips to being a NIKE
Make sure that work you are doing is one you can die doing and smile into your casket. Make sure that you don’t feel cheated, like you have sold your soul to do that work. Then ofcourse, take care of yourself, let God and family be priority, take your bath, and like I heard a pastor say yesterday -”brush your teeth so that you don’t get brushed aside” 
@ Kunle - e fit be you oh
[...] DeoluakinyemiDaily Motivation and Development for People and Organizations - ASE « Is this You? Can’t it be? Before you Start Your Own Business [...]
Ok. NIKE says Just Do It (JDI).
Intuitions?
Hmm, more than a nice piece.(SELAH)
still wondering why we try to secure the unsecure?Spend so much time doing what we dont like in the name of “at least it pays my bill”.
No matter how fat the pay, we are all like a pen in the hand of the business owner.The ink dries up the pen is thrown into a thrash can.May be I should use the ink my self so i can buy more in if its. running dry!!!!!!!!!.
I wonder, RONALDHINO enoys playing football, earns mega box, i even heard he donates to charity now, yet might retire at age 30.We work till 65 doing what we dont like in the name of security yet add nothing significant to our society.
May God help us, no no ARE WE GOING TO HELP OURSELVES WITH THIS TRUTH.(SELAH)
it is really mind blowing….but at the same time many people are not educated on how to take meaningful risk!!!
What more can be said, I share the thoughts of my dear friend and brother, Kenny Oluboyede.
‘very many of us will be embarrased at ourselves’
to know how often time we’v been penny wise and pound foolish
May God open our eyes!
You’ve done it again, dear.
Happiness indeed is a journey and a choice too, moreso when we know that ‘real life’ is not characterised by the absence of obstacles.
It’s good we understand that we’re worth more than what we portray. The truth is that we will always have opportunities to do the things we love if we commit ourselves to doing them.
Let’s break free from our fears, then we’ll be helping a lot more people get liberated.
mark my words people, i will not be caught in this rat race, if this is the matrix, i’m unplugging myself now.
food for thought
“do not let what u cannot do interfere with what you can do”
truly, amandi a neze
@biola.com
This piece is striking, you just gave me a paradigm shift. I am
beginning to question the importance of many things I am holding on to.
I seem to be seeing a picture of the slippers in many things I am doing. After reading your piece something within me tells me that this is what has held down my true potential and many others like me.
I’m not just going to read this, I am going to apply this “padlocked slippers” test to the stuffs I am doing and I think we should all do the same.
Great work!
What we should all realize is that no right thinking individual will do this intentionally. But this is what we do unconsciously through our decisions, choices we make daily.
We out not to laugh, but cross examine ourselves if this is not the signal others see in us when they look at our choices, attitudes and many more.
@ Ropo - I think we need to take calculated steps. We certainly need a plan and then we follow the plan. Awareness is usually merely a first step, then decision, then planning, then executional excellence, then freedom. Do you have any ideas on how we can retrieve ourselves from the padlock we used to lock ourselves down?
@ Olaolu - That is the first step, now upgrade the slippers and throw away the padlock
So glad you found this useful.
@ Tope - Word. We are worth more than what we potray. If we see ourselves rightly, we’ll live with more confidence.
@ all - Good contributions! I think wisdom is not the ability to answer the right questions but the ability to ask the right questions. I think in asking, we lead ourselves to finding… Does anyone have ideas on how people can leave this arrangement?
Thanks a bunch! I laughed the first time i saw the picture but now u have shed more light on the true meaning. Merci
Hi from New York And thanks for the web site. It was just the thing I had been looking for. It has helped me no end. Thanks again
This is like being penny wise pound foolish. It is simply amazing and the owner of the slippers would be with the key of the padlock and feel cool with himself.
God should give is the grace to be wise.
Thank you, I just wanted to give a greeting and tell you I enjoyed reading your material.