unafraid
Our Greatest FearMarianne Williamson from her book
A Return to LoveOur greatest fear is not that we are inadequate,
but that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some; it is in everyone.
And, as we let our own light shine,
we consciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.
(quoted by Nelson Mandela in his inaugural speech and in other movies including Coach Carter)
pain 4 power
processing painWhen distressed and discomfited in any way it is so natural to desire escape from the pain. Many times, this response is not appropriate. Rather, the precursor of the situation should be addressed and amicably resolved which makes the going away of the trouble just a by-product of a robust problem-solving approach.I find that pain and anguish weighs upon a heart where there is insufficient internal strength to hold the pressures and demands of the environment. It looks then that a good reaction would be to push for a corresponding power to meet challenges. A point of balance and equilibrium is what to strive for when confronted by distress, anguish and powerlessness.Increased personal power to counterbalance the responsibilities that come in the same package with life's positions, privileges and blessings is what pains points to. And every occasion of confrontation should be converted to a catalyst to grow strength and increase power.
bits make the whole..
Success works by synergy
Every part of you put in its bit for success at any one point of life. It takes more than the particular technical proficiency to get it together at the workplace. Neither is the soft skills alone sufficient to run a family, marriage and other relationships. Getting along with people forms a part of our personal objectives. But achieving it happens with a careful mix of your serious side as a disciplined member of society as well as letting go and being carefree.
Its the fusion of your behavioural traits--technical and psychological/emotional--that helps to deliver any sought-after goal. The mistake we often make when we struggle with any one aspect of being, personally and organizationally, is to isolate that area for concentration to the exclusion of other parts of the whole. And that, most often, is the undoing. Because existence has been designed such that only the coming together of the separate units in a harmonious association produce fullness and completeness that is needed.
The essence is this: failure results from compartmentalizing any part of a process by itself. It needs to act in consonance with other elements of the big picture. The strategy to adopt in taking on challenges might not lie in that sector of activity. The winning edge may just be an approach unconnected to the issue in question.
One month later...
late comer!!
Today coincided with the day of the month I started on this job and whether that makes it a month since I resumed here is not clear. But I dont like it that for the first time I came in when practically everyone was seated at their tables at around 8.30am. Offered a weak apology to my supervisor whom his colleague responded that nobody monitors resumption time like that here. That's a major departure from my former employer where a second of lateness is noted, and explanations are required or demanded if not given.
Its not comfort zone for me anyhow to come in later than is stipulated.
Deja vu
Desires, whether conscious or not, find their way to reality. One craving I looked forward to was to create and print official documents. Probably, that's my perception of what it was to be a working, value-creating and contributing economic agent, somehow I just thought it important to produce actual written papers that is part of a process to get real work done. Standing in front of my line manager today with papers held out to him to see, it dawned on me in an instant thatthis was the picture I had projected and wished for so many times.
And standing in this reality made me realize how vital for people to really get what we value and cherish out of life and making sure that's what is needed. For me, producing important-looking document is not an end in itself but I did set it up as an image to achieve. So, Tosin, change your images and getyour pictures right!!!
cell-level transition
cell-level transitionBold colours splashed across this massive billboard placed beside the highway leading to the Central Business District of Nigeria's commercial capital. "Celtel's in town," I told the friend seated beside me as we commutted to the office this morning. The international telecoms company has bought a controlling interest in Vmobile-one of the four GSM operations in the country-some months back. The telecoms giant had stopped to consider whether its continuing the strong brand Vmobile has invested into building or standardise the Nigerian acqusition into its international flavour.Continuing our conversation, I told my friend that its always been inevitable that Celtel will project its brand into the Nigerian market. Its hesitation was mere respect for the psyche of the company stakeholders, time was needed for them to embrace yet another change. And, really, it was yet another transformation in the history of Vmobile which had taken on two previous names as the company continues to evolve. It began as Econet Wireless Nigeria, played around for a while with the South African giant, Vodacom, for a short while and hopefully this new transmutation will stabilize over time.Even supposing the new evolution adopts the anticipated shock-and-awe aggressive marketing to register and build a reckonable identity, its sure that it'd take a decade for the name change to penetrate into general discussion. The peoples of this nation and humanity in general take time to adjust. This fact begins to sink when one realises that some folks still call NITEL (the national telephone establishment) by the name P & T. That notwithstanding the fact that the whole generation that is less than thirty years in age never used that acronym. Another example: my alumni, OAU, not only gets referred to as Univwersity of Ife by those who were there when that was the institution's name but their ignorance was a willful one to mark their perception that they had higher quality education.The mentality of preference for the past and seeming inability to shift and change as time changes is an ageless one. People have always wanted old wine instead of new, their orientation says, "old is better". This brings me to the point I like to focus this morning. The tendency of individuals to find a position and then stick to it. The assumption, circumstances and realities that supported the position moves yet folks cling to their beliefs, habits and lifestyles.The one quality I will require in any relationship I will be a part of is the ability to change, adapt and adjust. To take on and imbibe new phenomenon with speed. It is my belief that the world is set to solve its thorniest issues when men can change. Not locked up in their diction birthed from a culture that faded over a century ago.My colleague here needs to use this system I'm using but the point has been made.Let's increase our rate of internal change.
