At birth, the story of your life is inscribed in the heavens. Your life on earth must rewrite that same story. Let me share with you the story of this bird’s egg that was next to chicken eggs. They all hatched at the same time. The baby bird and the chicks were very similar physically. As they walked, the baby bird saw a bird in full flight and exclaimed, “Oh wow, I wish I could fly too!” The chicks, smiling, told him, “We are chicks, so it’s impossible for us to fly.” The baby bird walked on sadly. It also thought of itself as a chick, and all its life, it never attempted to fly because it didn’t know it was actually a bird, created to fly.

This phenomenon is common among the inhabitants of the earth. How many people suffer from depression, anxiety, jealousy, lack of confidence? How many don’t know what their mission on this earth is? How many live with a heart full of bitterness, sadness? How many suffer from inner wounds? How many have taken their own lives in the face of difficulties? All these elements testify to just one thing: ignorance of our identity.

The greatest men in history will forever mark our minds simply because they discovered their life mission. Martin Luther King, Thomas Edison, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, etc., were men who had a specific purpose and fulfilled their destinies. Knowing your story allows you to know your life mission! Never leave this world without experiencing this beautiful encounter with the wonderful person you are! It’s from all this that I learned to trace back my thoughts and to recall my life from the furthest I could remember. I started by analyzing the education I had received, past mistakes, childhood dreams, disappointments, fears…

It takes great courage to confront painful episodes of the past such as illness, death, abuse, and so on. Being naked in front of oneself requires immense courage, yet it is necessary. Remember that the only way to know where you’re going is to remember where you came from. What have the mistakes of my past taught me? What have the previous sufferings taught me?

Life is a school where learning never stops. In fact, a quote I appreciate says that the difference between school and life is that in school, you learn the lesson first, then in life, you’re tested. I would say it’s dangerous for a person to never make mistakes because trials are very good self-revealers. When everything is going well, it’s hard to know our inner being, but in times of difficulty, the way we react says a lot about our personality. Are we strong-willed as it appears to others, or are we rather fearful? Are we reliable and stable or easily influenced? Why am I afraid of speaking in public? Why am I so often worried?

Following the traces of one’s history

Knowing oneself means knowing what one’s deepest values ​​are, knowing what is acceptable in one’s life or not. Knowing one’s identity is important because it prevents a third party from making you believe that you are who you are not in reality. I was made to believe that if my mom suffered a lot, it’s because I was a bad child. I was made to believe that I couldn’t achieve great things, that I was an uninteresting person, that I wasn’t intelligent, that I had no heart. I would have believed all these lies if I hadn’t discovered who I was.

Here’s what I discovered about myself. I am a responsible and trustworthy person. I am a loyal friend who understands others. I am someone who advocates wisdom. I am a mother who loves to see happiness in the eyes of all children. I am a sensitive person who cannot bear to see someone suffer. I am a fighter capable of surviving in the desert. I am someone who loves her life and has decided to succeed in it. I am someone who desires to leave a touch of light in this world of darkness.

Becoming aware of your identity makes you act differently. You no longer do things to please others, but to be true to your deepest self. That’s how I took the step, a few years ago, to reconnect with that aunt who had taken care of us when we were little, after more than 20 years of silence. It took me courage to delve back into painful memories of the past and a good dose of humility. Knowing your history is synonymous with knowing your family’s history, your ancestry…

This text is an excerpt from the book “What Is Your Story?” written by JESSY MAMBOU.

We invite you to read the following article “A Heart That Closes“.

One’s Life Mission.