Challenging yourself should be a lifestyle

“You were born to be real, not to be perfect. You’re here to be you, not to be what someone else wants you to be. Stand up for yourself, look them in the eye, and say don’t judge me until you know me, don’t underestimate me until you’ve challenged me, and don’t talk about me […]

“You were born to be real, not to be perfect. You’re here to be you, not to be what someone else wants you to be. Stand up for yourself, look them in the eye, and say don’t judge me until you know me, don’t underestimate me until you’ve challenged me, and don’t talk about me until you’ve talked to me.” Anonymous
“If you want it, you’ve got it; you’ve just got to believe in yourself.” Hussein Nishah
“You aren’t worthless like they made you feel. You aren’t so broken that you could never heal. You aren’t stupid like they made you think. Listen as I say this, you are stronger than you believe, and smarter than you seem. You are special, you are something else, be proud to be yourself.” Francine Chiar
“Accept the challenges so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory.”  General George S. Patton
“For me,” said Elias Agbo, “the idea of challenging yourself applies to everybody who has reached an age or stage in his life when he seeks to get the most out of   and explore new grounds. One may have mentors and people they look up to for inspiration, but the self is the major element that matters. Self is the one that can challenge self. The journey to success starts with you and I always encourage that we start with self/soul-searching.” 
An easy way the furniture builder encourages people to go is to work on their being unique. “Find your comfort zone which allows you to be creative and different from the regular while making positive impact around you.  This way you will grow as an individual.”
His friend, Samuel Chukwuebube, who was listening, added that “asides this, knowledge is a key factor for one to be able to challenge himself and succeed. I really would not say that the average Nigerian is ferocious about attaining awareness beyond his immediate environment. Many are simply content with what they know and many a time, it is recycled information.
“It is a waste if we don’t make any efforts to expand and enrich our minds. It can be a really sad experience to converse with someone whose mind is complacent and inactive. We should all make it a personal challenge to educate ourselves; a personal mantra if you prefer, to seek to be more aware. The more we expand our knowledge base, the more we realize how little we actually understand. Let’s be more curious and be more willing to find truth about the things we are interested in.”
The 35 year-old Wuse Zone 5 resident said, “we need to challenge ourselves to be self sufficient. The one thing I say all the time to my children is to that they should challenge themselves on the needed steps to put them in a position in which they can be the masters of their own domains with nobody, but them calling the shots and determining the pace at which things moved.”
In the same light, Paulette Ali said, “a famous line says that friends, family and health are the most important things in life. To this, I would like to add   education and inspiration. I agree that it is very important to have friends who are genuine and supportive of us, but can they also say the same for us?  If we consider people to be true friends, we must also seek to be so to them by challenging ourselves to be unquestionably better friends.”
According to the 40-year-old tailor, “a lot of us don’t seek avenues to inspire ourselves   to gain more knowledge. I believe that there is not one human being who isn’t born with a creative side, but many go to their graves without ever exploring those sides of their lives.”
Regardless of what our life is all about, there is need for us to be creative and seek avenues to self development, Ali added.