Image: Best Quotes
Happy New Year, folks!! The eagerly anticipated 2020 is here. We are already a few hours into it. I imagine the thoughts that run through your mind: How you’ll smash the goals you’ve set. How you’ll get more people to buy into whatever it is you’re selling. Perhaps how to win more friends and cheerleaders over. This year comes with a little more uniqueness than the years past. It’s the onset of a brand new decade; a few of us would remember the much-touted Vision 2020—the dream year when Nigeria was supposed to have actualised her economic transformation. It’s both sad and amusing how that has turned out.
You have planned and strategised. You are determined that this year will not go the way of its predecessors where the sprint in your steps slowed to a lethargic pace after only a few weeks. This time around, you’ll do triple shift if need be to ensure your dreams come to fruition. That’s not such a bad thing, only that sometimes, in our hunger to see things move quickly, we are inclined to seek support in the wrong places.
There’s a tendency to think everybody has a role to play on our journey to self-fulfilment.
This is erroneous.
More often than not, we need only a few people in our corner to give us the needed push or just be present as our sounding board.
Stop reaching out to everybody
A trend I have observed among an alarming number of people is the need to be liked. We think if only we could gain the friendship of a certain person, we would be on the way to being successful. We see accomplished professionals in our field and do all we can to reach out to them. We desire that they acknowledge us, give us some tips on how they attained their level of success or even have them mentor us. Again, there’s nothing inherently wrong with this ambition.
Nonetheless, you must develop the ability to read people’s body language with a view to knowing how to behave around them.
If a person you admire repeatedly pays you no mind or ignores your messages, you must take the cue that they do not wish to be disturbed or aren’t interested in interacting with you.
I am wary of contacting people I really admire. I would rather like them from a distance because I do not want an indifferent or negative response on their part to taint the respect I have for them. I also realise these are busy people who have issues they are also grappling with and as such may not be available to offer the sort of assistance I need.
So what do I do?
I work on myself. I take on my own challenges and work incredibly hard to make myself a person value. Valuable enough to court the attention of the people I admire.
If you are a premium professional and all-round individual, it’s only a matter of time before the right people notice you
Be the one people are itching to meet, to connect with. Besides, there’s something about being in your own lane and focusing on your work that earns you respect.
Be Content
Clout chasing and other forms of underdog behaviour stem from an inferiority complex. This year, be content with who you are and what you have while striving for more.
Nobody is better than you.
Nobody is better than you.
The repetition isn’t an error. It’s an attempt to help you digest every word.
Those who are more accomplished or recognised than you put in the work to get there. Do the same if who desire to achieve the same feat.
In the end, January Ist is just another day, albeit one that signifies the start of a new calendar
Remember, preserve your self-respect; only go where you are loved.
Happy New Year, once again. May the odds be in your favour.
