Today, I wasn’t able to honor a friend’s invite to a suicide prevention forum but even from where I sit, I know that this is a very important subject matter, especially in recent times.

Where I come from, commiting suicide is considered a taboo. It’s a subject no one wants to discuss publicly, neither is it important to the people to establish the real reasons why someone would choose to take away their lives. Truth is, cases of suicide have been on the rise lately.

As a Christian and a Roman Catholic for that matter, I believe that taking away your life is a sin. I also know that life can sometimes be very hard and not all of us are wired with the strength and grace to withstand these pressures. A very close person to me once confessed that they had unsuccessfully attempted suicide twice. I felt sad and guilty about it and that’s because I never thought they had gotten to that point. I would see this person occasionally and they looked just fine, so the suicidal confession was a shock to me.

Depression is a real disease that’s killing many people. Not many are bold enough to open up and seek help. The other fact is that depressed people are not the gloomy ones, the ones who wear goth makeup and walk around with sad demeanors. Some of those happy and smiley people are very depressed. Publicly they look just fine, but in private, they are at war with demons the size of the titanic. They don’t speak about it because they feel ashamed of themselves, they fear the judgement and condemnation.

As a friend or family member, when someone reaches out to you regarding depression or that they are having suicidal thoughts , do not ignore, judge or laugh at them. They could actually be at the end of their rope and now hanging on by a thread. Be supportive, counsel, help them seek professional help.

And for those crying for help so loudly on the inside but cannot speak up, know this, you are not alone. That situation you think you can’t overcome, you actually can and will. Look back at every other time you thought you’d never get back up. You are still here. Though not as strong as you want to be, but you are still standing. Do not choose suicide. Choose life!

Talk to Befrienders Kenya on +254722178177 and get the help you need.

My former secondary school motto read, ‘Discipline is the road to success‘. I wore a shirt daily for four years with a badge having this writing on it and not once did I ever stop to think what it really meant.

Several years later, I look back and I understand exactly what the proprietors of this great school meant when they coined this motto. But what, exactly is discipline? It is the art of self control and self reliance that enables someone to be able to make themselves do the right thing, and what is expected of them without being supervised, in order for them to achieve the set objective.

Whenever you are trying to stay on a diet, that’s the time your friends will be inviting you out for drinks and ‘nyama choma’ in turns. For a drug addict, the moment you decide to stay clean is when opportunities to to start using present themselves without you even trying to go out in search for them. As Christians, we encounter temptations constantly but when you make a decision to follow the right path, that’s when the devil shows up with the all his relatives in order to try and get you to backslide.

Discipline is what gets you out of bed on a cold chilly morning so you can get to the gym and work out even though thirty more minutes of sleep sounds like a great idea. It is what makes you say ‘NO’ to that bribe that a job seeker is offering you so they can get hired, even though you know you really need that money at that time. It is the ability to walk past that nice pair of shoes that you desire so much without impulsively buying because you know you cannot afford it at the time.

No matter how talented you are, if you lack discipline, you will never succeed. Success requires hard work, determination, consistency, the grace of God and DISCIPLINE. Ask any successful athlete around what their secret is and they will tell you a lot of things. But one consistent thing that stands out in all of them is the discipline they have especially when it comes to training. Learn to talk yourself out of quitting when you know quitting is the most comfortable option. Start small, and build up from there. Having self discipline is not as obvious as you’d imagine and it doesn’t come easy, it is something you must teach yourself daily.