Emile Zola

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I love the above quote, because it corresponds directly to the way I intend and have lived my life.

I want to start strong and finish strong, but not at the expense of my dignity and integrity. Basically, I want to live out loud.

I intend to live out loud with the gifts I've been blessed with. Notice that I regarded it as gift, not talent.

Here's the snitch, your talent is a gift. Talents are gifts, not self-acquired abilities.

If you have started off life thinking that you are self-made, according all the smartness and talents to your hard work, then you have not interpreted the quote correctly. In other words, you are being foolish.



Let me break it down with illustrations.



Take William Hung. He can fork out his entire life savings on hiring the best composer, songwriter and vocal coach, but even till the donkeys flap their wings and fly, he will never be able to sing. Same goes for Jessica Simpson. Singing is just not their gifting.

On the other hand, you have Michael Jackson. He single-handedly revolutionized the music industry, wrote evergreen pop songs. His gifting was singing, and a whole lot more, but he squandered it. All was flushed down the drain the moment he wanted to be someone else, the moment he stopped loving himself for who he was. He stopped Living (his life) Out Loud. Till the day he died, he Lived Out Loud as a whole other being, existing with unacceptance of himself worn like a scarlet band across his forehead.

I do not desire to be associated with either of those categories.

Whether I am in favour of it or not, life whiles away in a bat of an eyelid. That's the hard, cold truth and the sooner we come to realisation of that, the better it will be for all of us.

Life is fragile, it should be handled with care.

Living out loud is to live up to your fullest potential, making full use of your giftings.