CHAPTER NINE
EXEMPLIFY! YOUR LIFESTYLE
To exemplify means to be a typical example of something. Champions are persons who are examples. They are always looked up to for exemplary conduct. Because champions are always up there, every one under them look up to them for direction and guidance. Everyone wants to know how they got up to their status they want to follow their footsteps. It is this reason champions have to protect their reputation and guard against anything that will spoil their self-image.
You might have heard statements like “I don’t expect that of you”. It means there was a more expectation than what was being done by the person being accused. Champions are often aware of the huge responsibility from their numerous fans that look up to them not just for the talents but for the moral support from the stories of the champion.
True champions often have humble beginning. Their success stories often relate with the troubles of most people so often they have to carry the burden of not just living their lives but living it like worthy champions.
When a champion does something in an exceptional way, everyone wants to do it like them. People hope to play golf like Tiger Woods, dance like Michael Jackson, and shake their hips like Beyoncé. Champions are seen as standards.
Your quest for championship takes you away from your quiet life and you become the cynosure of all eyes. You don’t expect to hide at the comforts of your room and become the mega superstar on stage. Though most of the work towards championship is done alone, attaining the status comes with a big responsibility to shoulder the dreams and aspirations of others who hope they can be like you.
Most superstar champions fail to appreciate this fact so they were overtaken by the sudden fame and ecstasy of the moment of their championship. They got involved in drugs and lost out their place of championship. Some are dead while some have gone insane.
Champions don’t play to the gallery of their fans. To think that you have to please your fans once you are up there is a mistake. Champions lead but they don’t allow the fans teach them how to lead. Fans change taste and you may go mad over them. The fans loved you for who you were before your new status. Remain true to that personality they loved in you initially. Don’t change because you want to be in vogue and attract more fans. Fans will still be around when you are dead
Popular late pop singer Michael Jackson rose to pop fame in the 70’s as a teenager. He however bowed to the pressure of his fans and manager to alter his skin in order to be a bigger brand. Sadly, that was a mistake he made. He showed a bad example and left a negative legacy. He died suffering from the effects of the operation and died premature. He could still have being popular with his talent and could still have made money as other blacks are doing. He could still have being a positive example to the world but he died when he was needed most.
Champions have to be cautious of how they lead their lives. You don’t want to spoil your good name over a small situation that should never have happened.
Pitros, South African Paralympic champion landed himself in prison after killing his girlfriend. Tiger woods lost a fortune after divorcing his wife because he was unfaithful to her, Michael Powell, former track and field’s Olympic champion lost his champion over accusation of doping. Champions don’t meddle. They are cautious.
Because you immediately have people poking at you once you reach a champion status, you don’t have to make yourself more grandiose than your new status has made you feel. You have to be meek and show humility. This will wade off negative attention. Real champions are humble. They stay humble to God and to humanity.
People look out for virtues they can copy in their champions. Once you become a champion, you naturally become a role model. They are aware that it has taken some great virtues such as hardwork, perseverance, diligence, hope and faithfulness to reach where you have reached. They know it isn’t an easy route. They want to walk in that path you have taken and they are hoping they will become just like you.
You have a responsibility to look up to men and women of exemplary conduct. Who is your example? Champions look up to champions. They think of how to outdo the champion they are modeling their lives with but they have to reach the level of the model champion before they can outdo him.
The person you look up to can direct your path to where you want to be at least to their level. The bigger your model, the bigger your chance to be big too. If you look up to small models, the chance of becoming a big shot is slim. Don’t let your model be your final port. Let him be your start port.
Your daily thinking should be how do I live my life to be an example to the people behind me? How does my life become the right book that others can read and be inspired to live their lives and become the best they should be?
Sometimes, we are given to being examples to people who are lower than us that we think that those ahead of us cannot look up to us as examples. Well, champions don’t think like that. They expect everyone to look up to them whether they are big or small, achieved or less achieved. They think that what’s inside them isn’t in the other renowned champion and that they have what the renowned champion does not have.
What you have inside you is enough championship status for people to become envious of. Sometimes we think that we have to be up there. Well! That’s weird thinking. You are up there already. People will see you the way you see yourself. Make your life such that others will look at you and marvel and want to emulate you.
Live your life the way you would love it when you see some other person living that life.