Currently, the talk of the town in Ghana is the investigative Journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas’ expose titled Number 12 versus the outspoken Member of Parliament for Assin North, Kennedy “Akompreko” Ohene Agyapong’s supposed counter titled “Who Watches Over The Watchman”.

Others have been the Kelni GVG brouhaha, the Ghana Card issuance and a few others.

But these talks will soon fade like shadows into thin air for a new one to evolve tomorrow. What remains constant is the story of your life; either you progress or regress, it is up to you!

Last month, I had word from one aged family head in my village to pay a visit to my root. Upon my visit, l saw the eighty-three-year-old man had the sharpest brain I have ever seen. Despite my “disappearance” for long while, he still remembered and called me by my name when I entered his hut. After being served with water from his “distilling” pot, he recounted some events that had happened during my childhood as we went on chatting for more than an hour.

Curiously, I asked of the secret to his old age, good health and memory. He gladly gave me three things to “keep in my knee” as I set forth to follow my own path in life. He termed these secrets as his success elements, going on to indicate how he had paid careful attention and stuck to them since his youthful days.

Having an assessment of each point, there is not much to say than agree that his evaluations are useful.

Let me quickly go through each of the “success bulletins”;

“Life has taught me that what you feed your mind, the words you speak and the company you keep shows who you are and how your life will turn out someday. This trio can cause a deep scar in one’s life, thereby shaping your view about the affairs of the world”, he said.

Per his counsel, I gathered that the above are great investments made in our lives with regards to the choices we make daily. I gathered as well that if someone knows these three elements about your life, it will pave a way for an accurate prediction of the outcome to a particular trend in your life.

Waving his hands in thin air, he narrated how research had proven that consistent reading helped to keep a person’s mind fresh and updated. He told me that it is a way of exercising one’s brain and keeping it active. Like a rolling stone, it will gather no moss when you do this harmless activity.

But of course, you need to be cautious about what you feed your mind because in my few years on earth, I have learnt that man is made or unmade by himself; in the armory of thought, he prepares the weapons by which he shapes or destroys himself.

Indeed, among all the lovely facts relating to humanity in this era, none is filled with divine promise and confidence than this-that man is the master of thought, the moulder of character and the maker and shaper of a situation, environment and destiny.

Therefore, there was a need to keep your head straight to get things right. What you feed on mentally will be churned into thoughts and thoughts become your character.

His second area of caution was the words we speak. To describe what we see, feel and know, we use words. Anything without a name does not exist as Jesus Christ once said. What we say have life in them. Words do not die, words are spirit beings.

As I watched him sip some water at this point, I recalled going for a job interview last week and a question was posed to me about the heights I see myself in the next two years. In other words, they gave me the permit to speak life into my life and cause what is not there to be there in a short while.

Words have the ability to appeal to your emotions and affect the way you carry yourself.

Finally, he told me that as I have boldly entered “this world” I should watch those I call my friends, since a fraction of their speech and deeds will turn to be absorbed in my life as well. Of course, I have a portion of the lifestyle of some friends l made in the university in me after being with them for quiet sometime.

He gave instances of how some people he knew allowed the company they kept to influence them and the end result went sweet or sour. Our friends speak volumes about our characters and lifestyles. It is a simple equation which reflects in our spirit lives, too. As a social animal, you tend to spend more time with them till your dying day especially, those found in the intimate groups you belong, your workplace and your home.

He wrapped up his conversation with how fast time was travelling and soon the year 2018 will be gone with lots of unfulfilled dreams in many lives due to certain friends they got entwined with. We have travelled into the full half of the year already and soon 2018 will fade off.

During the latter part in the year 2017, we accessed the year and how life went. Many of us gathered in our strongholds to prepare ourselves and declared goodness into the coming year. At such gatherings too, we prayed and made arrangements for stable jobs, marriages, building our homes, investing into our personal lives, breaking an addiction and many beautiful plans to improve upon the life we live.

My question to you dear reader is, who do you call your friend and how much have you achieved over the days with him this far? Is his company worth keeping? How well have this fellow helped in painting a better picture in your life this year?

There are certain obnoxious things in this life that we need no magician to tell us the cause and how to rip them off because they are obvious. No one can also do anything about them, but you. Time is far spent and we need to make amends and improve for the better.

By the way, the old man extends his greetings from the village. Just as a warm bath refreshes the body, so does it feel to visit your root periodically to have a feel of how it is to be in that remote setting. When you do so, spend some time with the aged and share your story with me, for not all of them are evil as we say. Until then, see you on the other side.