The hardest thing with any creative activity is starting it. It is daunting when you confront the blank page and you don’t know what to do. You want to express yourself, create something good but you are stumped. You try to pull out ideas from your brain and you produce nothing intelligible. A lot of folks give up at this stage and believe that they are simply not creative.
I was invited by a lecturer in the Business School to do a session of guest teaching on one of his modules. The students on this module were full-time International MSc and MBA students. Long time subscribers of this blog might remember that the same lecturer had invited me to do a guest teaching session a couple of years ago. You can read the blog post I wrote about that session here. He requested that I teach the same topic, The power of organisational and leadership metaphors, which I did two years ago.
Life is a story we live and tell. You are the protagonist and storyteller of your life – your auto-biographical story. A protagonist is “the most important person in a real situation” {Oxford English Dictionary}.Everybody else in your story world is a supporting cast member of varying importance and relevance.
Today is the 12th day of the month. The clock seems to be running down on 2015 already. I bet most of you have set goals, targets or resolutions for the year. How is that working out for you? Are you still on target or are you struggling?
My main 2015 resolution is to build new habits and develop new skills. I aim to be realistic with myself this year. I would normally start the year with many goals, get overwhelmed, fail before the end of January and feel guilty the rest of the year for lacking discipline.
2014 has been a year of consuming stories. Aside from watching a lot of movies this year, I also listened to a lot of podcasts. My mobile phone has functioned more as an iPod than an iPhone. Last year, I read a lot of online longform articles and blogs via Pocket but not as much this year. My big regret is I haven’t read as many books as I would like. This is something I need to address in 2015 and I may have to reduce my video and audio consumption to do this.
I watched the movie, Locke, last weekend and I would rate it as the best film I have seen this year so far. This is saying a lot considering that I have seen 60 movies in 2014 already.
There is a big difference between having an idea and executing an idea. The discipline required to execute an idea is what separates dreamers from doers.
Executing your ideas not only requires ‘discipline’ but also ‘time’ therefore I would advise you to take the long view.
“Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year – and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade.” – Tony Robbins
There is no such thing as an ‘overnight success’.
There is the assumption that because you are naturally strong at something; you don’t have to have to spend too much time on it. You should devote most of your attention to your weaknesses instead. The danger of this is that you take your strengths for granted; overcompensate on your weaknesses with little marginal gains to show for it. There are three main things you can do with any given weakness.
leave (something) on the table v. phr. to refrain from taking the utmost advantage of something; to not address every aspect of a situation; in the form leave money on the table... (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
I frequented Foodco supermarket when growing up in Ibadan because it was close to my dad’s old office which made it accessible and convenient for grocery shopping. I went to Foodco during my recent trip to Nigeria. The supermarket had moved a stone’s throw down the road from it’s original site. The moment I walked into the new Foodco, I immediately felt claustrophobic. All the retail items were squeezed into a small confined space. Add about 15 shoppers, 7 shopping attendants and 2 security guards to the equation and I was surprised that no one fainted while I was there.
I was in Nigeria for 13 days a couple of weeks ago. The last time I was in Nigeria was 2002. Some things have changed in the intervening years but a lot still remained unchanged. The enforcement of the rule of law is one thing that hasn’t improved.