Lifestyle: What Mawuli’s motto teaches us about balance in life!

Sitting comfortably in the heart of the Volta region of Ghana is one fine co-ed school called Mawuli Senior High School. Indeed, the first time I nursed thoughts of drawing inspiration from mottos of Ghanaian high schools, Triple H College reared its head first!

Mawuli, apparently, is popularly referred to as Triple H College because of its motto “Head, Heart and Hands”. This motto is so deep, friends! Utterly awed, I have been poring over this “triple H” wisdom for some days now.

You see, one thing we find so hard to do as a people is… balance. Yes, balance. The path of balance is like a thin rope. Many of us find it so hard to walk on. Uncomfortable truth, however is, if living a life of balance is too much a thing for you to do, greatness is too far a thing for you to reach.

Head. Heart. Hands. I have seen so many people wreck their lives because they focus on just one of these while the others are deficient. Life is like a balanced diet. You need a bit of everything. You need the head (knowledge) as much as you need the heart (passion) and hands (action)!

Our tertiary educational system, for instance, is lopsided because of there’s no balance. There’s no link between the heads we’re given in school and the hands needed on the job field. As if that’s not enough, the few hands that get to use their heads have little or no heart to do what they do. Balance is always important!

If you want to set out to start something on your own, for instance, passion is not enough. You need knowledge as much as you need to channel your passion into action. The Bible even cautions that it’s dangerous to have zeal without knowledge.

In the family setting, there should be balance. In our schools, we can’t do without balance. In our spiritual lives, balance can never be overlooked. Constantly, the head should be at work with the heart and hands. There’s only a thin line between spirituality and gullibility; only a thin line between disciplining your children and abusing them. Find that thin line!

Knowledge is important and passion is equally important. Action is very important, too. You can’t do with just one of these. You’ll need each of these in your backpack if you want to climb to the top of life.

Passion without action is frustration. Knowledge without passion is confusion. Passion without knowledge is vanity. If you’ve the heart to build a car someday, for example, it goes without saying that you should earn a head in car manufacturing so as to apply your hands to build that dream. When any of these is deficient, the dream becomes deficient, too.

Many young dreamers are struggling to find their feet in this life because they can’t connect their head to their heart and hands. When they have the passion, they lack the knowledge and those who have the knowledge don’t apply them appropriately either.

Greatness is a summary of the head, heart and hands at work. If you want to use the head alone, you’ll bear unnecessary headaches. If you want to use the heart alone, you will always be broken-hearted. Well, if you want to use the hands alone, you may be hauled to a psychiatry home soon. Haha.

This week, put your knowledge into action… and make sure it is passion-driven. As we nurse big dreams, knowledge alone is not enough. We need action. We need passion. All hail Mawulians!

The writer is an old boy of POJOSS, a playwright and Chief Scribe of Scribe Communications (www.scribecommltd.com), a writing company based in Accra. His play TRIBELESS is on Sept. 16/17 at the Drama Studio, Legon. Get interactive with him on his Facebook page, Kobina Ansah.