ENDING WELL.

There's this game I love playing on my small Nokia phone, Rapid Roll. I had the highest score set at 4247. I was playing this game yesterday and I'd lost 2 lives before I could score 100. I wanted to restart the game but I kept playing on with the extra/bonus life. At the end of everything, guess what? I surpassed the previously set highest score and set a new one at 4616. It all began with an extra life. So I decided to do it again, lost 2 lives before I scored 100, and continued playing with the extra life, but that time, I couldn't even reach 1000. So I tested it one more time, this time around I made sure I did not lose any life before 500, then tried to beat the already set score but lo and behold it was over before 3000.

Three different tests, three different results but only one observation- that you can start anyhow and end anyhow. Though starting itself can only be in two ways, so also ending. Well and bad, it can never be in any other way or in between both. You starting better than someone else doesn't mean the person started badly, it only means you are one step ahead, hence the superlative "better". When your own starting is worse than the other side, doesn't mean that person started well, it only means you are one step behind, therefore the superlative "worse", you both started badly, yours was only worse than the other side. This is also true with the issue of ending. Thus, only you can determine how you starts and how you end, it all depends on your level of objectives and set goals. Just like PH scale, it all depends on the scale where well and bad falls in your dealings.

Here on earth, we all run races differently, some started well and ended well, some started badly and ended badly, some even started well but lost focus along the line and ended badly while some though started badly, like a long distance race but during the course of the race gained momentum and against all odds ended the race well.

While starting well is good, yeah it is good to always starts very well, it is much more important to also end the same way one started or even better. It is however very essential not to lose focus along the way so as to finish and end in a better way. Sometimes we foresee the end even before starting, therefore given us a headstarts than those who doesn't see it. With the end in view, starting comes with a lot of focus and determination and makes the journey/race much more easier. All we have to do is to use the headstarts to our advantage and end better.

If you are already running your race and you think you've started in a way that pleases you, don't forget the purpose and the reason you entered the race and then lose focus because the end of that your race is much more important than the start thereof.

Is there anything you are doing and the start was great? That relationship you are in that you're enjoying because of its start. Your grade in school is flamboyant because you started greatly? That business is growing because you planned and executed it very well? It's not yet time to relent, relax and lose focus, remember you have to finish the same way or better.

Many times, because of some circumstances and situations, people starts in a way not so encouraging, in a way that's not pleasant, in a way not pleasing to them and people around them, in short BADLY. Would that be enough reason not to try and turn things around and end it well? You are in it already and should therefore try with all might and change the tide, you can't because of bad decisions made in the beginning lose the purpose. Just like in my Rapid Roll game, you can change things and record the best. Ida Scott Taylor once wrote: Do not look back and grieve over the past, for it is gone. And do not be troubled about the future, for it has yet to come. Live in the present, and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering.

It is high time you took  a deep breath and see if the situation should continue as it is or worth changing in order to end well. Keith Alan Scott in OTH 1x10 said: "You might want to take a long hard look in the mirror. And see if the guy staring back at you is the kind of person you want to be".

Maybe you afraid of how things would end for you, or you are the type that get nervous of how that stuffs would end, you always think about how you started badly and you are therefore worried about the end, sadness always fill your heart whenever you remembered how you started poorly and you think of giving up. Are you afraid of the happenings around you? Have you been living all your life in fear? It is okay to be afraid, but it is much more okay to face whatever you are afraid of and use it to your advantage, face it and I bet you'd conquer it. Barry Corbin once said "There is no shame in being afraid. Hell, we're all afraid. What you've got to do is figure out what you're afraid of, because when you put a face to it, you can beat it, or better yet, you can use it". Nathan Scott further buttress Barry's view when he said in OTH 5x02 that "You know there's gonna be a lot of times in your life when you're afraid. Being afraid is okay, but if you don't work through that fear, you might miss out on some pretty great things". In order not to lose yourself while being afraid of the future and how it would end, taking a right approach and making right decisions might help in turning things around.

William Henley in his book invictus (The Invincible) wrote: "I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul". Therefore do not let your life go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swaps of the not quite, the not yet, and the not at all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists. It is real. It is possible. It is yours. If anybody can turn things around, it is YOU, nobody is going to do it for you, remember you are the driver of your life.

What about other people's opinion? People around you are going to say things, and it's either constructive or destructive criticism, but either way only you can allow them to have impact on you, only you can decide whether to let it slide or not. Above all, surround yourself with positive people who are going to affect your decision to end well even though you've started badly. Remember lions walk with like minds. Stepping up... It's a simple concept. It basically means to rise above yourself, to do a little more, to show you something special.

There comes a time when every life goes off course, in this desperate moment, you must choose your direction. Will you fight to stay on the path? Will others tell you who you are? Or will you label yourself? Will you be haunted by your choice? Or will you embrace your new path? Each morning you choose to move forward or to simply give up.

Take chances and believe in the possibility, even when life has given you every reason not to believe. John F. Kennedy once wrote: "The courage of life is a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy. A man does what he must, in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures. And that is the basis of all morality".

On a final note, the most important thing is not to be bitter over life's disappointments. Learn to let go of the past, and recognise that every day won't be sunny. When you find yourself lost in the darkness of despair... remember that it's only in the black of night that you can see the stars, and those stars will lead you back home. So don't be afraid to make mistakes, to stumble and fall, because most of the time, the greatest rewards come from doing the things that scare you the most. Maybe you'll get everything you wish for. Maybe you'll get more than you ever could have imagined. Who knows where life will take you? The road is long, and in the end, the journey is the destination. -WHITEY DURHAM (OTH 3x15).

Today is the day for you to change things, to make the right decision and be great, because ending well matters. Remember everyday you wait is another day you'll never get back again.

Don't be afraid to be great, okay? 'cause you are. And the world isn't strong enough to beat you.

DON'T FORGET, IT'S NOT ONLY BY STARTING WELL BUT ENDING WELL. BETTER IS THE END OF A THING THAN THE BEGINNING THEREOF.

AUF WIEDERSEHEN.... I AM OLANIYI ADEWALE HEPHZIBAH.