Royalty. Greatness. Value. The sight of a crown evokes this feeling in most of us. We shouldn’t be surprised that is does either. According to Webster, a crown is a reward of victory or mark of honor. From the time we can push a button on our first TV set this is validated by the crowns worn by the “special people” in fairy tales, on important people in religion and government and most notably for me as a young girl, on the beautiful women wearing them perfectly placed on their immaculate hairstyles.
I went in search of that crown this past year. Though I did not attain it, I learned valuable lessons that no amount of rhinestones could ever reach the value of. I represented Liberia in the Miss Africa USA 2010 pageant in July. It was one of the best experiences of my life, certainly not because of the largely disorganized and disappointingly unscrupulous pageant system, but because I met some incredible people and learned so many things about myself in the year of auditioning & preparation for it.
The two most important of the lessons was that every decision we make in life is an investment and that we have the power to crown on ourselves with every one of those investments. What is even better is that only we have the authority to allow anyone to ever to take the crown off of our heads.
Return on investment. When is the last time you thought about your ROI’s across the board? The organizations that you dedicate your time to, the people you spend your time with and the things that you spend your money on. Are you really getting back what you put in? Are you even getting half of your investment? This pageant really made me examine what was worth my investments; those investments being my time, energy, concern and definitely my hard earned money.
It made me realize that if we really looked at our life decisions as a whole (not just our business decisions) logically and investigated the risks and benefits of our decisions before we made them, we could truly save ourselves not just money, but heart break and probably the most important resource in life that can never be replenished, time.
The crown that sits on my head comes from 23 years of victory, tears, disappointment and lessons that have taught me who I am. I refuse to ever doubt it and I discourage you to do devalue yours either. So many situations in life attempt to shake our core of knowing who we are and what we know. You worked for that crown, you better wear it.
So that’s all folks as I pack away my sashes I take with me the fabulous pieces of art created in my homeland for the pageant, life lessons and more ammunition to kill this here life…with my crown on.
Nyki G.
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