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| Source: NelsonMandela.org |
A few months back, I saw Nelson Mandela (also known as Madiba or Tata) on the cover of Reader's Digest and immediately bought a copy. I've always been like that. I love reading and watching news and documentaries about the world's greatest leaders. I do it because of course, one, there's the fascination. [The] fascination with their illustrious lives; their successes and the many failures and challenges they faced. I look up to them because they show me the kind of leader I want to be like. Second, there's the learning. Despite being different from many of us, one fact remains the same -- they are also humans who have strengths and weaknesses, just like us, and we can learn from their experiences.
Going back to Mandela, I felt sad upon reading at that time that he was ailing, so just imagine how sad I got when I heard the news about his passing. I know a lot felt the same.
I was sad not only because he is Mandela, but also, as US President Obama stated during his funeral speech yesterday, he is the "last liberator of the 20th century." His death made me wonder, in this generation and the generations to come, will there ever be another Mandela? Another Mahatma Ghandi? Another Martin Luther King? Another Abraham Lincoln?
The answer came to me as a yes. All of us who are in our twenties were still very young when the apartheid ended. Our generation may not have experienced the kind of oppression other people endured during the apartheid era, but there are still battles that should be fought today. There's still corruption in the Philippines and in other third world countries, there's still a never-ending tension between the two Koreas, the armed conflicts in the Middle East, and, of course, the continuous fight against terrorism. But, I'm not just talking about battles against injustices in the society. I also refer to the battles we face everyday as individuals, which can come in various forms.
As mentioned earlier, there are important lessons I picked up from Madiba's life story and other great leaders who have gone to rest in peace, which I apply to my daily life, and they might be applicable not only to twentysomethings, but to people of all ages too.
1. It might take many, many years for one dream to come true, but never let go of it.
Being imprisoned for 27 years for fighting the apartheid, Nelson Mandela surely had a "long walk to freedom". If I was in his shoes, I would have probably gone mental. Thankfully, some recent events in my life had changed my outlook towards success and turned me to a different person. I know now that some dreams can come true overnight, some take months, most take years. Success comes in different rates. Your biggest dreams are usually the ones that take the longest to achieve. Don't get frustrated, even if the hurdles seem to be non-stop. Never give up even if the years seem endless. It's not usually our lack of something that makes us fail, but it's our self-defeating thoughts. Paulo Coelho said in his novel Aleph that, "dreamers can never be tamed." Never let bad circumstances tame you as a dreamer. These are things I tell myself everyday, and maybe Madiba did too. The anti-apartheid fighter was in jail for almost three decades, but his dream to achieve equality in South Africa never wavered.
ON A SIDE NOTE: There are activities I found helpful in getting rid of negative thoughts:
- Practice meditation (yoga or some other form
- Read and/or write more (help/s avoid overthinking/gloating)
- Change your password to a positive phrase or word (it might sound simple, but typing something positive everytime I log into my account uplifts my spirit immediately)
2. When you have an opinion, don't just say it, act upon it.
I was an active student leader back in college, and gave a lot of talk to younger people. I knew that I had the responsibility to make sure to be an example to them of someone who walks the talk.
Now that various social media platforms allow us to say what's on our mind all the time, opinions seem to be overrated. Don't be the kind of person with too many opinions. Be the one who actually does something to make your opinion count. While a lot of causes today become successful through the help of social media, there are also a lot that are only overly hyped but don't really get results. An opinion, which you can easily dish out online, can easily be ignored as well when new ones spring up.
Remember, Mandela and the others didn't have Facebook accounts or blogs which would have allowed them to disseminate information before, and certainly didn't have Twitter which would have helped them reach the right people who can help their lobbying. But, they were still able to make their beliefs, their voices be heard all over the globe.
Go out in the community. Reach out to people to whom you share the same beliefs with and do something -- no matter how small that something is.
3. Listen to the opinions of others and learn from them too.
Everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion. That's given. But there were definitely times when I myself get offended when other people attack my beliefs (and my ego).When I was younger, I would always give a good, long rebuttal to those who oppose my beliefs.
I learned over the years that if you don't believe in someone else's take about things, it's best not to become too offensive or defensive about it. Winning the argument doesn't automatically mean you've also won the war. Try to listen.
The South African leader Mandela was an example of a listener who tried to learn from his opponents. His opponents were fighting for white domination, the other faction for black domination. Instead of being close-minded and selfish, he had an open mind and an open heart, and tried to understand where the other party was coming from. The great Madiba fought for a Rainbow Nation, a nation which everyone in South Africa is enjoying today.
4. It's okay to have a vision of an ideal world. Never ever kill or try to kill someone else's optimism about the future of the world or humanity.
I don't like whenever a few people manage to find fault and try to put down someone's positive outlook. For me, they are either just trolls, or hardcore pessimists. They are always the ones to say, stop being idealistic and be realistic. I don't find anything wrong with being realistic - it's important to be - but I also do believe that it is the ideals of the greatest world leaders which led them towards the achievement of the impossible.
I heard a line from a drama which said, "if you pour a glass of clean water into a polluted ocean, no matter how big the ocean is, if you keep pouring, the water will eventually become clean." In reality, it seems impossible, but if Mandela thought it's impossible to stop apartheid because the government was too strong, the world wouldn't have achieved a big progress.
5. No matter who you are or what your colour is, you are allowed to dream. Do not belittle yourself, take a risk if needed, and believe that you too are capable of reaching your dream.
A few days after Tata's death was announced, my sister, my mom, and I watched the movie The Help. My sister borrowed a DVD from the library and thought it was just perfect timing to watch it since it's also a movie about racial discrimination. Up until today, I still can't believe how unjust and unfair some people were before. I also couldn't believe it when I read that, during the apartheid period, South Africans who were of Filipino descent were considered blacks, while the Japanese and Koreans were "honorary whites". Seriously?
Even though discrimination hasn't been completely eliminated from the face of the Earth, we all had come a long way in our goal to put an end to it, and the chance of meeting a person who's THAT oppressive to other races is sheer fluke.
And so I'll say again, no matter who you are or what your colour is, you are allowed to dream. Do not belittle yourself, take a risk if needed, and believe that you too are capable of success. Thank you Nelson Mandela for showing us how it's done.
Are there lessons you learned from Mandela too? Share your thoughts in the comment box below!
In memory of Nelson Mandela
1918-2013
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