INTRODUCTION
Here is an excerpt from our online lecture that summarizes what I’ve learned from Mr. Solomon of the Action Quest Lecture Series
This piece aims at challenging my fellow Steemians and the readers in general to recognize the importance of ‘being oneself’. Therefore there’s a call to put into action the knowledge shared here.
I am also inspired to share this by one of my Mentors too, a Steem Ambassador and Entertainment @Michaelcj, the Piooneer of Steemcamp event who is known for the apothegm: “KEEP IT REAL”.
Let’s begin!
DEFINITION OF TERMS
To ‘Nurture’ means to nourish; train; to encourage the growth or development of something.
Contextually, Nature here means something original.
Hence, the topic “Nurture Your Nature” translates to mean the act of training your originality.
FURTHER MORE
To best explain this, let us use the significance of the individuality of out thumb prints. Despite the increasing number of persons living in our world, in spite of the fact that there exist some level of alikeness – physically or otherwise, no two persons have the same thumb print.
Wow!
This therefore reveals that we are all born unique, distinct in our own ways. You are you. I am me. Our actions and reactions, the way we interpret things too also varies.
If we are aware of this, we will begin to explore the symbiotic relationship that will make us all enjoy by exchange, the products of the nature of one another.
Then, why do we copy?
Copy in this case is different from positive emulation (i.e having a mentor)s The former robs us of our originality, depreciates our creativity and makes our natural ability, a liability.
THE ANIMALS AND THEIR NATURE
Recently, I was also able to learn that a video was released on facebook sometime ago where a tiger was domesticated and even live indoor with the family that owns it.
I was flagabasted as Mr. Solomon said this. In fact, he went further to reveal that the family has and lives with seven giant tigers. Also, the man’s little daughter, ‘Hilary’ by name swam with one of the tigers, playing and jumping on its back.
I @GraceHills who haven’t experienced or seen such kind of stuff, asked myself rhetorically:
“How will this be possible?”
“Does this tiger understand its nature?”
In attempt to answer these questions with all these events going on in my head, Mr. Solomon told us that their nature is still in them.
The problem is not that their nature has been lost, but that it hasn’t been nurtured. Simply, it has not been altered, rather it has been suppressed.
A tiger is still a tiger. Their wildness still lies within. But if they fail to nurture their nature, they will all grow living a different life and die in the same manner someday.
Another significant aspect that deserves some level of emphasis was the part in the video that showed when the man’s daughter was feeding one of the tigers with milk through a bottle like the way babies are fed.
Imagine a tiger enjoying milk being fed by one of its preys. The family in their wisdom is aware that feeding the tigers with red or raw blooded meat will make them wild and make them concentrate on such food.
Therefore, we become what we keep doing everyday. “Even a lie is often accepted as true as long as the liar keeps telling that particular lie everyday”, said Mr. Solomon.
Another way to broaden our understanding of this context is through the story of an eaglet. I remember before my late mum passed on, she will always tell us some folktales most times under the moonlight. That experience was fun.
This eaglet was born, later on, it lost its home. Let’s talk about that aspect that relates to our topic. It found a new environment of chicks and hens and grew up with them.
It flew the way they flew, fed the same way the chicks fed, acted the same way they acted as it slowly transformed behaviorally from being an eagle to being a chick.
This eaglet was happy and contented. Do you know why?
It is because it didn’t understand its nature.
No one was there to tell the little eaglet that it was living below its standard; that it can fly higher than it does; that it can grow beyond its status quo. Sadly, it grew and died that way.
The nature of the fish is to swim; the nature of an eagle is to fly, the nature of herbivores is to eat grass…etc. When you deprive them of their natural habitat, you reduced the chance of them living and increase death rate.
Until you understand your nature, you cannot launch your potentials
UNDERSTANDING YOUR NATURE
Understanding your nature starts from measurement. That is, measuring your qualities and traits, as well as identifying your strength and weakness.
A trusted friend can also participate in this identification process. Having discovered them, you suppress the bad areas and improve on your positive qualities.
It could also be in the rhetorical question format, using the question How? E.g How does it apply to me? How can I best improve? ...etc.
Creativity come from this self questioning; ideas emanate from this act and uniqueness is birthed.
You walk with the right set of people to help build you up. Have a mentor and emulate his or her qualities and so on.
How do you expect to work with chicks and then fly like an eagle?
Understanding your nature precedes its Nurture.
Find your right fittings in all things.Anything outside this will tend to leave the victim frustrated and disappointed.
FUNCTIONALITY OF NURTURING YOUR NATURE
Nurturing your nature entails using your understanding of who you are in venturing mostly into activities that guarantee more of you getting what you want; concentrating on what supports the effective functioning of your strengths and discourages what will expose your weaknesses.
This nature includes both your intrinsic and your physical attributes.
An understanding of your nature is the key to prosperity. Nurturing and sharpening it helps you dominate.
“Champions don’t compete, they dominate|” – Mr.Solomon F.
You are naturally endowed to be an inspiration to others by being yourself rather than being a copy of someone else or competing with others.
Competing is an eloquent sign of lack of self discovery while originality is a sign of someone that is a master of his own fate (rather than in the hands of another person).
Originality brings out the newness that thrives and moves things in the world. Not necessarily that you create new things all the time, but that you should do things in a new way that reveals the good part of your nature and attract the world to admire as something they have not seen before or as a new method of doing a particular thing they know before but have not seen in such method before.
The more you nurture you’re your nature, the more oiled the engine of your mental vehicle is and the more the speed you will cover at the achievement of your ambitions in life.
This is because you will be like a well serviced vehicle that knows the route that is compatible with the vehicle and then know the conditions that best suit your drive.
Overall, your smooth ride is more guaranteed than that of somebody who doesn’t understand his/her nature. This applies also in marriage and other partnerships.
In conclusion, nurturing your nature makes you an asset. When these words are translated into our actions, we will definitely come out with positive results in our pursuits and as well be a source of inspiration to others, both consciously and unconsciously.
Thanks for reading.
Note: The images were gotten from the LABEL FOR REUSE tool.
Image source 1
Image source 2, Pixabay
Image source 3, Pixabay
Image source 4, creative commons, Wikipedia