Saturday, 19 January 2019

You grow most tired when standing still: City Jam Lessons

The jam in my city is crazy, but once the traffic slows, and engines stall, your eyes are opened to other phenomena. Some road rage here, some impatience there. Then there is passive aggression. On the other lane, a beggar approaches a driver, and before they can declare their intentions, the driver is shaking their head to indicate they have nothing to offer today. The red break lights in the car in front go off, and the cars seem to move for a few seconds, then stops. People hoot, as if that would help, and as you think about that, a motor cyclist sandwiches themselves between the vehicle you are in and the one beside it, almost going off with the side mirrors. And before that scenario is cleared, a street boy is washing your windscreen, and you are forced to raise the lowered windows. In a few, the lad is done, and comes to the now closed window screen asking for a tip for doing what you didn’t ask them to do. The guy behind the wheel refuses to look in that direction, and the lad on the outside gives up and moves to the next ‘client’ and repeats the same. But then, when he is half way through the windscreen, the traffic begins to move, and he lets the motorist go with raised wipers, and windscreen half dirtied. However, in all this, you begin to notice something. Motorists are continuously scouting ad joining the lane that seems to be moving, and when what seemed to move stops, they ‘jump ship’ and join the moving lane. That gets you a lil’ philosophical. For the same concept applies in the highways and byways of life.  

MOTION IS ATTRACTIVE. People want to be with people who are in motion, people want to join companies that seem to be doing well, GROWING, and even at a personal level, people tend to associate with you to the degree that they feel you are progressing. So the next time you wonder what happened that your friends don’t call anymore, don’t want to be with you any more, ask yourself whether your lane is moving. Remember you are like a bicycle, you are never stable (physically, psychologically, socially and otherwise), until you are in motion. The 21st century market and personal space leaves us with only two choices, to progress or retrogress …for if you attempt stagnation in the busy byways and highways, chances are, you will be knocked, and sometimes you don’t even know by who!

Then someone hoots behind you and realize you had begun to sleep on the wheel…

Saturday, 12 January 2019

Be AUTHENTIC, the alternative is PATHETIC

When you shun self doubt, you begin to shine in self confidence.
When you quit comparing yourself with others, you begin to win at your uniqueness.
When you succeed at self acceptance, any other success will accept you.
When you believe in your dreams, soon you live in your dreams.
Be yourself, its the one place you are sure of no competition.
Be yourself, they say, everyone else it taken.
Be yourself, unless you are contented with being a second grade copy.
Be AUTHENTIC, the alternative is PATHETIC...

YOUR MIND …a warehouse or a factory?

Among the functions of the brain is to encode, store, and retrieve information. This memory function is important as retained information may guide and/or influence future action. Information acquired, stored and referenced in future may also blind our eyes from everyday opportunities to be productive. The question that needs urgent answers is; “what are the sources of the information your brain stores and references every time you make decisions and take action?”  Of this memory/’warehouse’ part of the brain, care needs to be exercised, about the information we accept and store there. One must check its quality, interrogate its premise, assess the value it adds, and never allow space for information whose only validity is that it has been passed to us by generations past. Most education systems emphasize on memorizing and regurgitating information, and the more one remembers, and not necessarily uses the information stored, the higher they are rated as good in class. However, it is better when information stored in the ‘warehouse’ is seen PURELY as RAW MATERIALS THAT CAN BE USED TO CREATE SOMETHING PHENOMENAL, This calls us to engage a different part of the mind…

The creative function of the mind is the one that is rarely exercised. We get caught up in the way things have always been done, and individuals who try other means are ostracised, yet, the best innovations came from people who decided to break the rules in the face of criticism and play by their own terms. INFORMATION STORED IN THE WAREHOUSE OF OUR MEMORY SHOULD STIR OUR CURIOSITY TO CREATE. This begins when we start to question! Any source of information, whether professional, religious or cultural must allow for questioning. The custodians of such sources must also learn to accept when the premise of their tenets are challenged, and instead of defending their space, explore new information that is always available to the seekers of truth. That is how information helps us to manufacture new ideas, new means, and helps us remain relevant in a word that is constantly changing, and with discoveries that are opening our eyes to new horizons...

So, to the question of whether you have a warehouse or a factory for a brain needs to be considered. Grounds must be established where the two work together with the ‘warehouse’ being a place where we store the raw materials inform of knowledge, and which we need to use to create the beautiful things that we want to fill our live!

Thursday, 10 January 2019

Yes, I fired the bullet that killed her, and friends, this is why

My hands were shaking. My heart was racing. I could feel the sweat beads form on the palm of my hands. The metallic grey revolver in my hand now felt warmer than when I picked it. My mind was wild with thoughts. I KNEW I WAS READY TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY, but I had to GATHER THE COURAGE. I reached in to my pocket, and drew one silver bullet. Slid it in place, and rolled to cock. I was sure I wasn’t going to miss this time …MY LIFE DEPENDED ON IT

She had been a seductive beautiful goddess, hungry for attention. Her eye lashes spoke louder than her lips. The sparkle in her eyes made the yellow sunset over the Himalayas look bad. It was tempting to just sit and gaze at the glow below her eyebrows. My progress was in jeopardy, and my family was jinxed. And when I wanted to do something about it, I was met with the IRRESISTIBLE ROMANTIC IDEA THAT TOMORROW WAS THE IDEAL DAY. This came with AN ELABORATE PLAN FOR THE MORROW, and so we watched a movie, had a chat on social media, watched repeat news, which were always bad news …or just lay there, and DID NOTHING …I knew I was in a fix, and I had to fix this. And it was NOW or NEVER. And since she wasn’t going to just let me go …I REACHED FOR THE TRIGGER

The deafening sound of the shot was accompanied by a flight of frightened birds in a nearby garden. It was such a relief. I my defense, my lawyers argued that it was in self-defense, BECAUSE PROCRASTINATION IS A KILLER, AND I NEEDED TO SILENCE HER BEFORE SHE SILENCED MY DREAMS, ASPIRATIONS AND PLANS. I was given a not guilty verdict

…WHEN PROCRASTINATION DIES, PROGRESS SEEMS TO GROW WITHOUT WATERING...

…and that is why…

Lessons from the Photography Master …of uncomfortable chairs and amazing poses!

Its is 23rd of Dec, 20-something, and the Christmas mood, combined with my previous days event, and under immense peer pressure from Chelule et al., I end up in a photo studio sweating under camera lights and blinding flashes. We came here to do what they called professional photos taken by a professional photographer in a professional photo studio …we had just graduated. Before this, I had been ok with the few photos I had taken with my y6pro Huawei (or ‘uuuuui’ as my KAOcasian kinsmen and kinswomen would call it)
Well, that’s not the story. The story is what I learnt from the photography master.
The philosophies around photography have been around for some time now. First, you have heard it said that THE BEST PHOTOS are DEVELOPED from NEGATIVES in a DARKROOM (for those who remember the village camera man with a camera tethered around his neck, and kodak films bulging from their pockets …and always taking photos on a bended knee). And gain you have heard it said; WHATEVER YOU FOCUS ON YOU CAPTURE! You cannot keenly focus on my feet and clearly capture my face …NO! However professional you, your camera or your studio is...
Then now this day, this photography master requests me to sit on a chair for a shot. First was a nice rotating leather chair with a shining silver foot rest. We tried all possible poses, postures, …everything. The photos weren’t looking as good. Then this master quips; COMFORTABLE CHAIRS NEVER ALLOW FOR GREAT POSES! And right there, he got me a metallic, non-rocking chair that FORCED my back in the right place, and my head and shoulders up straight!
…so is life’s discomforts.

Tuesday, 8 January 2019

No longer a secret …the law of attraction


A simple Google search on ‘the law of gravity’ yields about 265,000,000 results in 0.54 seconds. A similar search on ‘the law of attraction’ yields about 383,000,000 results in 0.58 seconds. The picture painted by such a trend is ironical. Even with fewer search hits, the average person gets to hear about the law of gravity earlier than they get to hear (if they ever do), about the law of attraction. Why would such a crucial law, with direct impact on quality of life, be taught or self-taught, if ever, long after the other laws of the universe?

According Rhoda Bryne, such a state of affairs has been by design, not by default. The law of attraction has been SECRETELY passed down through the ages, highly coveted, lost, stolen, and bought for vast sums of money. It has been understood by some of the most prominent people in history: Plato, Galileo, Beethoven, Edison, Carnegie, and Einstein along with other inventors, theologians, scientists, and great thinkers. But that is not the case in our time, the law of attraction has been revealed to the lovers of knowledge to pursue and put to test.

WHEN YOU FOCUS YOUR MENTAL POWERS ON SOMETHING, NO MATTER WHAT IT HAPPENS TO BE, WHAT YOU ARE DOING IS, YOU ARE CALLING IT INTO EXISTENCE.

Like other laws of nature, the law of attraction is impersonal and it does not see good things or bad things. Right from Wrong. True or False…
When you focus on the things you don’t want, you are calling the very things you don’t want into existence…
WHEN YOU FOCUS ON THE THINGS YOU WANT, YOU ARE CALLING THE THINGS YOU WANT INTO EXISTENCE...

The complete order of your life is determined by the law of attraction.  Everything that comes into your life and all you experience is so through THE MAGNETIC POWER OF YOUR THOUGHTS. Through the Law of Attraction; THOUGHTS BECOME THINGS, and LIKE ATTRACTS LIKE. The law of attraction is the law of creation, creating after the pictures you display on the screen of your mind. WHATEVER YOU PICTURE IN YOUR MIND WILL FEATURE IN YOUR LIFE. WHERE YOUR THOUGHT FLOWS, THERE YOUR LIFE GOES. Each time you engage in a chronic way of thinking, you are engaging the creation process. So make those chronic thoughts noble, good, and healthy. Begin to cautiously and consciously choose thoughts that empower and uplift you, and soon, the very things you thinks about you will bring about! 

THAT IS NO LONGER A SECRET!

Monday, 7 January 2019

BESTIR your S.E.L.F!

Today YOU must BESTIR your S.E.L.F 
...by PLACING A DEMAND on YOUR POTENTIAL
By making WHAT you KNOW you SHOULD DO be what you MUST DO... 


Today YOU must BESTIR your S.E.L.F
...to REACH THE DEPTHS OF YOUR POTENTIAL ...
to REACH DOWN TO THE WEALTH OF YOUR PERSONAL POWERS 
...to awaken those talents in you that lie in you latent...

Today YOU must BESTIR your S.E.L.F
... For only you can TAKE YOURSELF TO THE HEIGHTS OF ALL YOUR ASPIRATIONS...
Only YOU CAN PUSH YOURSELF TO THE PINNACLES OF ALL THAT IS POSSIBLE FOR YOU...