DISCOVER YOURSELF: A MOTIVATIONAL GUIDE FOR SELF-DISCOVERY
By: Adeyemi Ibrahim
‘Discover Yourself’ by Oluwasanmi Oyewumi is a motivational and inspirational book that guides b oth the young and the old minds on self-discovery. As a prolific writer, Oyewumi surveys the front and back of success to a great extent. He does not only define self-discovery, but also sheds more light on how to fulfill the purpose of our existence a human beings.
GENERAL SURVEYS OF THE BOOK
Oyewumi Oluwasanmi in his motivational book DISCOVER YOURSELF ignites the common self-finding phrasing of Mandy Hale which says: “You’ll learn, as you get older, that rules are made to be broken. Be bold enough to live life on your terms, and never, ever apologize for it. Go against the grain, refuse to conform, take the road less traveled instead of the well-beaten path. Laugh in the face of adversity, and leap before you look. Dance as though EVERYBODY is watching. March to the beat of your own drummer. And stubbornly refuse to fit.”
The author of the book explores extensively the right path to tread in life to achieve greatness through self-discovery and that is why the book is titled
DISCOVER YOURSELF.
So many people have so many things that can earn them greatness and success in life. Those things are valuable gems hidden in them but the problem with these people is that they found it difficult to find the gems in them. They find it very hard to discover themselves.
This book, with a decoding diction describes and provides an antidote to psychological sickness that may enthrall the minds and mindsets of many people against self-esteem, self-fulfilling, self-finding and self-discovery.
THEMATIC CONCERNS OF THE BOOK
In this book, so many subjects are thematically subjected to six basic chapters of thought pouring issues. Some of them are precisely and explicitly discussed below:
IDENTITY CRISIS
Many people have many things that are capable of taking them to the Promised Land. Thay have something but they think they have nothing. They have hidden gems in their psychological farmlands but they are yet to discover them. They have potentials in them but they appear like nuisances to the world.
What is enthralling the aforementioned people has a name, it is “the silent enemy called identity crisis.” The author describes and defines “identity crisis” as “a silent enemy that affects most people in many ways unknown to us.”
The writer presents the causes and consequences of identity crisis and after all, he profers the solutions. That is why he says: “Unless we all see the identity crisis as a common enemy and deal with it, we may not be able to give our best contributions to the world and enjoy the success we truly deserve.”
SELF-EXAMINATION
The author of this book surveys the need to do self-examination. This really coincides with the common saying of Socrates that “An unexamined life is not worth living.”
Oyewumi sees self-examination as “a great exercise that helps us to take stock of our life and make necessary adjustments toward enjoying our dreams.”
DISCOVERING ONE’S UNIQUENESS
So many people want to be called the best because they think being the best is the best. They fail to know that there is a big difference between being the best and being unique. The author explains the difference between being the best and being unique with the saying of an anonymous writer who says: “Being the best is great; it means you are the number one. But being unique is greater because you are the only one.”
However, in chapter four, the writer explores the need to celebrate and accept one’s uniqueness. Failure to accept and celebrate uniqueness, he says is the cause of many negative feelings we experience today and a gateway to a life of sorrow and pains.
BETWEEN DREAM AND REALITY
We all dream to achieve aims without pains. Everybody wants to be somebody and nobody wants to be nobody. But then, the best kind of man is he who makes his dream become something of reality.
The author of this book however explicitly clarifies that the great ones are not just those who have made achievements in life but those who have made fulfillments of their purposes in this temporary world.
MAKING PASSION A PROFESSION
To discover oneself in life should not be the most difficult thing to do. This writer has really explored the best means to discover oneself. It is said that “until you discover, you’ll never recover.”
The best way to exel in life for a man is to make his passion his profession. This exactly is what the writer projects in the book.
LANGUAGE AND STYLES
The author of this book uses decoding dictions through out in the book. With well-formed use of the English Language, he analytically explores the path to self-discovery.
Both linguistic and literary stylistics are well deployed and tooled to convey the message of the writer to the readers. The use of proverbs, allusion, flash-forward, metaphor, and simile and so on makes the book a rich motivational material to lay hands on for anyone who cares for quick self-discovery.