This topic sounds unreasonable! First of all, you may want to ask: “How do I maximize what I have lost?” “Where do I even get it to maximize?” Don’t worry, I will take time to explain to you; all you need to do is keep reading.

You see, a lot of people have lost treasures in life. Some have lost valuable assets, some their precious years, some their children or other loved ones, etc. One thing about losses is this: there are things you can regain and there are some you can never regain… but, I want to tell you this- even when you cannot regain what you have lost, you can still maximize it, even in its lost state. How do I mean? Let me share with you.

A few weeks to the end of my youth service year, I lost my greatest treasure. It was the most valuable thing I had gathered over a space of 12years. Was it money? Absolutely no! It was my diary of poems. I had over 600 poems I had composed and neatly written in there. As a matter of fact, I was making plans to buy a laptop and get them typed, because I was looking forward to publishing them in the shortest possible time. But on that fateful day, all that I had gathered from age 10 or 11 disappeared. A fate that made me learn lessons- why electronic and photocopies for back up purposes are of great necessity. I should have known better. But the price of my foolishness was starring me in the face. The reality of life! I never imagine that what I had treasured and handled so dearly would disappear from my house- the safest place it could be? Well, that is story for another day.

Up till today, if I could exchange my 12years sweat for N5million, I would obtain a loan to retrieve it, but where will I find it? I had made several efforts to recover my lost diary, but all to no avail. You wouldn’t understand my plight. Most times, I would wake in the middle of the night to write my poems, sometimes in odd places, say on the street, in a car; sometimes when preparing for exams. I got insights from situations, observations, dilemmas, seasons and times. Now how on earth could all come back? How would I recall those times and inspirations, those imaginations, those exact words and expressions? Definitely impossible!

I ran into depression and mental distress. For the next few years, I quit writing, and each time I remembered my diary of poems, it would feel like a sharp knife piercing my heart; I would shed tears endlessly. I would blame myself for taking my book into my town of youth service. I would sink into depression. But did all that help me? Absolutely not!

When I came to discover that I was losing another treasure- time- by not writing anymore, I had to forgive myself and put myself together again. It was so certain that whoever stole my diary must have gone ahead to publish those poems or may have thrown it into the garbage can or even burnt it. We live in a wicked world, don’t we?.. So I had to find ways to be happy again. I began to talk about the diary I lost and how the poems they carried would have touched and transformed several lives, had they been allowed to see the light of day. I called them my miscarried fetuses, children forcefully aborted by fate.  I would speak of them so highly and in a tantalizing manner, that if you listened, you would crave to read them. I also began to share lessons learnt from my loss- stories everyone who felt my predicament would take to heart. I would recall lines of poems I had memorized and share as foods-for-thought or wise sayings. From my losses, I also gained insight into writing of motivational articles and books. You see? I have been maximizing my lost treasure ever since.

What is it you have lost? Do you know it can live on? In the next part of this series, I will give you examples of people who maximized their lost potentials and help guide you through.

Now you don’t have to be depressed over that person or valuable treasure you lost. Put a smile on your face because they will live on and you will now be able to maximize them even in their lost state. Don’t miss the next part of this article for anything. Catch you up later!

33 thoughts on “MAXIMIZING YOUR LOST TREASURE, PT.1”

  1. When we move on, rather than dwell on lost treasures, that’s when we open other doors to other treasures hitherto hidden. Life got lots of ups and downs but do we continue to remain grounded when we fall? Definitely not!

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