In 2009, while at a boarding school, a Boys’ High School, the school Principal addresses the entire school in a general assembly. There had been a debate club meeting over the weekend and the boys had had the privilege of interacting with girls from neighboring secondary schools. The extroverts had a good time socializing but a good number kept to their classwork.

Excitement had been higher than normal on this Monday morning as the school convened for the General Assembly. It’s almost obvious that the excitement had been triggered by the presence of girls on Sunday afternoon, and the Principal decides to use his speech as a reminder to the boys how their success relates to women. I will paraphrase in the paragraphs below.

The Principal acknowledged that females will always be a center of interest and discussions to males that have attained puberty. At my current age of 25 years, I can ascertain that he was right on this.

However, for men that are not careful, the very women that make your life interesting would also distract them and cause them to be average achievers in this life. Based on my experience so far, we, men, can momentarily forget our interest so as to impress a lady we got our eyes on.

An average lady can arrest the attention of a successful man and henceforth their lives move to a new, higher plane. This is less likely to happen for a man. This point is very logical, no need to elaborate.

If you work hard and become successful, you can have all the women you want in life. Honestly, this statement was a message of hope for the hard-working students, and a pain to the fun-loving ones that happened to be the majority.

When you become successful, you can be likened to a person who stands next to a colony of ants. They tend to climb up your legs and it is you who wipes them off your body. Just to be clear, I would not rate my success to the number of women that gravitate towards me. However, in 2019, this statement worked like magic and that’s why I remember the story up to date (would I rather struggle to get the attention of a woman today, or become the object of attention for women in the future? In 2009, I chose to work harder to attract more women when I get successful. Am still working hard to be successful haha).

It was a story meant to remind us that our studies and future deserved more attention than aimlessly running after women. I recall it from time to time and it helps me to live deliberately – not be too carried away by the excitement of meeting and having a good time with women at the expense of building a successful life.

As I continue socializing and learning my ways around people, I remain focused on my life goals and plans. It’s all aimed at leading my life to reach my goals; living deliberately.

Lead your life to reach your goals; live deliberately.