Look your tomorrow today
How would you treat a “baby” snake when you see one? Would you allow a “baby” lion to go close to your three-month-old baby? Why wouldn’t we allow such animals around us or our loved ones?
There is an adage which says that you’re addressed based on how you look. That’s indisputably true. However, there’s also a principle which says that you’re not just treated by the way you look but by what you look. That is the law of semblance.
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If someone is treated nicely because he is wearing a doctor’s overcoat, is it the person treated in that regard because he looks like a doctor or he is treated as such because of what he looks?
When you see a python after it has swallowed a prey, you’d either kill it or run away. Funny enough, the python in that state is usually helpless. Your reaction is not based on how it looks alone but what it looks which is dangerous.
The principle of semblance highlights the importance of looking your next level before getting there. It doesn’t mean if you want to be a doctor, start dressing like a doctor. The principle of semblance means preparation in the absence of any imminent opportunity. True preparation is preparation when opportunity is very afar off.
Your next level could be marriage, career, etc. What is your next level? You want to get married, do you look like marriage material? You want to become a doctor, do you look like a doctor? You want to become a great person, do you look like a great person?
Looking your next level is very important in becoming that person. During interviews, what is done is that potential is sought for. The conclusion usually is that, the selected person looks like someone who can do the job.
You see when a guy proposes marriage to a lady, what do you think he sees in the lady? The guy sees the potential of whatever he wants in the lady he is proposing to. It means the lady looks her tomorrow (marriage material) now.
If you want to become a manager in the future, how many managers have you spoken with? How many books on management have you read? Have you taken time to research on what makes successful managers? If you have, have you tried inculcating it?
If you’re planning on making a family, have you read on how to create a family? Have you spoken to people who have succeeded in doing what you wish to do?
What arrangements have you made? If you’ve not taken any steps towards your future self, then you don’t look it. It means you are not ready for it.
The good news is that what will be has already been. What you want to become has already been done. It is not too difficult to look your next level in this era where the internet allows access to amazing information.
The concept of preparation is usually underrated. True preparation is preparation when there is no imminent opportunity. True preparation is an everyday thing.
Tony Gaskins, a motivational speaker, author and life coach, puts it this way, “Success is never an accident; it's always the result of a plan. They say chance favours the prepared so get prepared and stay ready so that you don't have to get ready later on when it is too late.”
Know that, you attract what you are or look like and not what you want to become. A flower would still attract insects even if the flower has intentions of becoming a mango leaf.
In the same vein, looking your future today would cause the elements in the world to create a certain energy that would gravitate you to your tomorrow.
What do you want to become? It is better late than never. Start today. Read a book. Talk to people who are already where you want to get to.
Know that you’re not ready for your next level if you don’t look it today.
The writer is an assistant clinical psychologist doing his national service at the
Trust Hospital in Accra.
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