You are not a FAILURE.

The festive season can give birth to a series of problems for some people, I concluded on this after witnessing some things for the past 2-3 weeks. The discussion about celebrating Christmas is the topic many are having for some weeks now, it is worth it because this celebration comes once a year, and the holiday that accompanies it makes the celebration awesome. It allows us to catch up on lots of things, family, friends, and others.

Catching up with people we haven't seen for a while now sometimes usually turns out to be something we weren't expecting and this shouldn't make you feel like a loser. Celebrating the festive season based on our financial ability shouldn't make us feel like we are a failure, you can think of yourself to be whatever you like but referring to yourself as a failure because you can't celebrate like others or match the standard of people you haven't seen for a while is a wrong thing to do.

I didn't write this article to make any feel good because they can afford the big celebration for Christmas, I did it because it is what you need to know.

The past eleven months of the year have been stressful, troubling, and awesome, we made several attempts towards success. Some worked out well and some didn't, we made several decisions, shot at different opportunities but not all went as planned and we must understand that everything that went down which includes the success and disappointment in the previous month has added value to you.

Talking about value, it doesn't necessarily mean a car, money, and other material things. It might be that a lesson or knowledge you have acquired this year which could be all you need to be successful in the coming year, it might be an investment that isn't paying well today but has huge chances of changing your story for the better tomorrow. A few days' celebration shouldn't make you look like you have wasted the whole year except if you have truly done that by not trying to do any life-changing.

A short experience.

A few weeks ago, I got an invite to the old student reunion and doubted if I will attend due to my work. A classmate contacted me and ask if I will be attending the gathering, I said I wasn't sure and he said he won't be attending.

I asked why and he said that a lot has been going on in the Old student WhatsApp group but I wasn't aware because I am too busy to keep a tab on what they usually discussed.

He said some of the old students have bought cars and they will come to flaunt them, it would be bad as a senior to just go anyhow to the event. I couldn't help but laugh because I knew what point he was driving at, he felt that he wasn't doing well enough because his mates and juniors are living expensive life, flaunting all sorts of things on the WhatsApp group.

I felt disappointed and shared some things with him to make him understand that not everyone who is living large is successful and not everyone who isn't spending lavishly is poor.

Using myself as an example, I am the one who is supposed to be referred to as Baba Bukata (responsibility father). I have a lot of responsibilities and only God has been helping me bear them for years now, imagine if I had the money for a vehicle now - would I have bought one?

I wouldn't because I know that it would only add to my responsibilities, instead I would invest the money on something that would bring me more money and the burden on me can automatically be lessened because I have created a new source of income instead of doubling my expenses.

Anyone can mock me because I don't have a car but I can cash out my investment when I feel like I am capable of owning a car without stress. So seeing my mate or even younger ones flexing their cars doesn't make me a failure and it doesn't make you a failure as well.

Using others' success to rate your growth or success is wrong because we grow at a different rate in life, the things you see shouldn't make the things you have achieved worthless.

I made it clear that not attending would be for a greater purpose but he didn't specify if he would attend or not which is not my problem.

Another issue I stumbled on was a man lamenting how he couldn't afford Christmas clothes for his girls because business hasn't been going on well, he was saying silly about himself. He bought goods and the demand for it dropped, he wished he didn't do the business.

I asked if he haven't bought clothes for kids this year and he said he has bought several clothes this year so why would not buying clothes just once make him a terrible person?.

The festive season would pass and what would be left of you?

The season is meant for us to relax, enjoy everything we have worked for whether huge or small and also plan on how to make the coming year a bigger success.

Celebrating to impress or oppress others won't add any value to you or feeling depressed because you can't match others' way of celebrating would only complicate things for you mentally.

Some people will run into debt just to celebrate the festive season in a grand style, do we need that?

Your simple celebration with happiness before and after the season is a blessing and something to be proud of so let's enjoy by cutting our coat according to the material we possess.

Thanks for reading

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