“Life is about discovering who we are, leading is about striving to become better than we are, and helping everything and everyone around us to become better too.”
Lolly Daskal
Welcome to another year full of abundant opportunities for those who can see. You should be ready to make a lot of positive changes this year.
You definitely came into this year with some weights [people love weights]. And to make good progress this year, I suggest you drop those weights and take up the light ones; focus, discipline…
You should travel light.
The weights of failures, the weights of disappointments, and all related stuff should be dropped right now!
A Strategic Year
There are a lot of things that make 2022 an important year. And one that I am curious about is that 2022 is a year that ushers many people into the light, from the darkness that they have experienced in 2019, 2020 2021, from the ugly & harrowing effects of the pandemic.
A lot of people are just recovering, and this year can be called the first stage of recovery for many. And for Nurses, especially those in Nigeria & West Africa they have had their eyes opened.
I can tell you that the eyes of Nurses in Nigeria & West Africa have never been this opened before in the history of the profession on the continent.
Suddenly, they discovered opportunities that the pandemic made, and many of them quickly grabbed it, and many are still seizing these opportunities.
Though huge gaps have been made back home, who cares? Provided they can escape. Yes, that’s the mindset, an escape mindset, which unfortunately shouldn’t be so, because the real escape should be in our minds.
Well, it’s also good that many of us who find our way out of Nigeria are surprised at what we meet out there, and the smart ones can quickly adjust [the smart ones].
There will still be some who will find it difficult to adjust, though I pray & hope that they all find it easy adjusting & setting themselves free from the shackles that had kept their minds captive back home.
Another revelation some Nurses may have beheld is the revelation of a digital economy.
A Digital World
There is no stopping the world from going digital, and the pandemic which was supposed to be a curse happily opened our eyes to the realities of a digital world.
Social media became even more important than our offices, and we saw a mighty surge in the adoption of digital health products & services.
Some Nurses saw this and quickly latched on to the side of the moving train. Though we still have some that have not been able to understand what is going on, I also hope & pray that they too will soon realize what is going on.
To the first thing…
This Year Is a Continuation of The “Previous Years”
So, 2022 is an extension of 2019 [it’s like we are having a 1,095 day year].
The pandemic is still ravaging a lot of countries, people are still dying, the economy is getting harder, people are not finding it easy, vaccines upon vaccines are still been developed & more variants of the virus keep showing up.
And so many sore spots for our world today.
What is in it for you? You should be tougher. Arm yourself with enough knowledge because, in an age like this, it’s what you know that can set you apart.
So, don’t stop seeking relevant knowledge.
Once you get it, keep growing in it. A time will come when that which you know, and know well will be what you need to survive.
This is the period where specialized knowledge will make many famous. It takes some extra effort & sweat to gather special knowledge, but once you get it, boom! Off you go!
The next thing…
Watch Your Relationships Closely
“To add value to others, one must first value others.”
John Maxwell
This is so important. There are a lot of people who are where they are today because of a strategic relationship that they recognized, attracted, nurtured & cherished.
While we should strive to run away from toxic relationships, we must also be deliberate about the ones we keep.
You know that there are people in your life that do not contribute to any domain of your existence. They do not contribute to your spiritual, physical, intellectual, or even financial development.
What do I call those kinds of relationships? Let’s call them “junk relationships”. You get no profit from spending time with them & even giving to them.
I know you have read a lot about how to keep relationships, but the issue is not about reading or hearing, it’s always about DOING.
We find it difficult to do the things we read, hear & are taught. It’s easy to read & hear, but doing is where the real work is.
This year, you will make a covenant with the “spirit of doing” that you will put to practice the good principles you read & hear.
Back to relationships.
I know you love people & you want to help them. But unfortunately, your time is limited, and you should be spending it with people who will contribute to your growth & development.
So, against this delicate backdrop, you take stock of the relationships in your life & begin to trim them.
You kill the ones that need to be killed, give more to the ones that have good potential, reduce the time you spend with some people. It’s all for your good, believe me.
Right now, where I am as a person, I have discovered that I have very few friends. You won’t believe it. Apart from my close family members, I can count on my fingertips the people I actually spend my precious time with, and it has helped me to focus.
There was a time I had many friends, oh, I had a lot of folks around me, but as time went by, I began to discover that the people we call friends must be able to fit into your destiny as a person. And when I looked around me, I discovered that not many of those I called friends were fit for my destiny’s journey. So, I did what I am telling you to do now.
Take this saw & cut away!
Build Focus & Discipline
I have been including these two virtues in virtually all the essays I have so far written this year, and that’s because we can’t make good progress without them.
It’s ‘discipline’ that preserves focus. If you manage to get determined about remaining focused, it’s your level & intensity of discipline that can take you there.
We are in a world that is so full of distractions. The distraction of procrastination, the distraction of the easy path, the distraction of mediocrity & so many other forms of distractions.
In this year, you must determine in your heart to build focus & discipline.
We are gradually entering a new age, and the people who will rule in that age are those who can master the art of focus & discipline.
The beautiful achievements of people that we enjoy today as a race were all made possible because there were people who were ready to commit to the principles of focus & discipline.
“Our focus is our future, and what we focus on will multiply in our life.”
David Denotaris
Be Ready To Serve
“In Robert K. Greenleaf’s classic 1970 essay, “The Servant as Leader,” he recorded his personal observations over the course of 38 years (while employed at AT&T) and confidently determined that the best leaders are “servant leaders.”
Marcel Schwantes
Service is greatness, my friends. In service, we are allowed to grow unhindered. Especially voluntary service, where you do not expect any sort of reward from the system that you have decided to serve in.
When you see opportunities around you that require your skill, don’t hesitate to give your all. If you don’t have the necessary skill or what you have is a developing version of that skill, you should still give it a try, you may get the rare opportunity of meeting someone or people who have well-refined skills that you can learn from.
One attribute that qualifies & defines true leadership is service.
If you show me ten folks, and all ten are just about themselves, caring not how to serve people, I will tell you that none of them will make a good leader, they may make leaders, but not good or true leaders.
One thing serious Nurses who are deliberate about leadership can do this year is to be ready to serve.
Look for NGOs that have openings for volunteer services & give your skills.
Don’t wait for the big opportunity to come to meet you on your bed, you must go out there and work, and look & be positioned properly, and one wise way to be positioned right is to serve.
A call to leadership is a subtle call to leadership. It’s subtle because people don’t fully understand that true leadership is just service in a proper disguise.
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
Mahatma Gandhi
Personal Development Should Be Taken More Seriously
“The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.”
Ronald Reagan
What comes to your mind when the term personal development is mentioned?
Many things may or will or should come to your mind. But what you must know is that personal development is more about self-discovery.
And mind you, it’s a life-long process. It has no end. We keep developing, growing & improving provided the world still stands & we are striving to get better as a race.
In some instances, what you know & mastered some years back becomes obsolete, making it mandatory for you to unlearn what you hold dear. That’s why it’s called a process.
This is one aspect of personal development that many of us don’t enjoy or appreciate because we hold on tight to models & ideas that have helped us in a phase of our growth & development, so when we see new ideas coming into our space, we feel threatened.
“You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.” —Woodrow Wilson.
If you feel threatened by change, you will never make progress. You will be left behind & those who wholeheartedly embrace change will overtake you, and in the future begin to tell you how to live. That’s the truth. So, learn to grow with time.
To read more about Personal Development, this is my favorite link, and I am sharing it with you, have a look, here.
Nurses & Personal Development
Nursing is a profession that can make you forget yourself.
In your selfless service to others, trying to help them, a time comes when you suddenly discover that you have spent the last five years of your precious life helping people, and you have not made any progress in helping yourself, and no one really cares.
Though we appreciate some Nurses who have started taking leadership seriously, creating communities & starting initiatives that help Nurses recognize themselves as important people, and not robots.
If you want to be relevant in this age as a Nurse, it’s imperative that you take personal development seriously.
Without the teachings on personal development, our sermons on leadership are empty.
Take a closer look at your life today, and take note of those areas that are lacking. Once you have discovered them, start being deliberate.
Some of us have very low personal development scores in academics, once you discover that, begin to take steps.
Do you think getting an additional degree would help? Or maybe doing another degree in a different field entirely.
And it may not just be about academics, really. Some have already gotten to the zenith of their academic achievements [it varies, someone might be satisfied with the diploma or degree & is more interested in building a business or doing something else].
It may be the area of relationships. You may have discovered that you are poor with handling relationships. Why not take deliberate steps.
Look for relationships coaches if you have to. Read more books. Reach out to people who have what you desire & start knitting connections.
Nurses have been known to have very few friends, because of their kind of work. Many are lonely, I mean seriously lonely.
And from experience, I have found out that female nurses find it difficult to secure proper relationships that lead to marriage [this is a discussion for another time].
Do you have that problem? If yes, then it’s time to get serious…
Attend relationship seminars [not necessarily for romantic relationships, but also for learning how to nurture business relationships, social relationships, etc], and be DELIBERATE about it. Be true to yourself. You know where it hurts most.
Yours may be in your health. You know that there are things you should start doing & things you should stop doing that will tremendously improve your health, why not take the steps?
Do you need to start doing more exercise? Why not hit the gym! Or start running, just do something.
If you have the resources, you can opt for a personal trainer or take personal lessons in a local gym.
Do you still pamper harmful habits? Like smoking, alcohol use, overeating, bad sitting posture, lack of taking lots of water?
Or your finances. You are a bad money keeper. Instead of pretending, and putting your head in the sand like the Ostrich, why not take the bull by its horn or the cat by its whiskers, and make up your mind that in six months you will be a better money handler. It only costs you your decision & determination.
Thank God for online courses. Today we even have courses that teach you how to walk a dog. So, you see, all you need may be cheap subscriptions away.
All it takes is your decision & determination.
Or you want to develop a skill or a hobby or a small business.
You see, it’s a long list, an endless one.
And I believe you have seen that personal development isn’t a big deal. It’s just about you taking note of the little changes in your life that can have massive effects.
Don’t Let God Out of What You Are Becoming
Yes, he’s going to preach us a sermon.
In life we all worship something. And if you decide to call yourself an atheist, well, I beg to challenge you that you worship something.
What we worship, we give all of our intellects, our abilities, time, energy, sleep, food & sometimes our precious health & relationships.
So, think about it, and ask yourself this harmless question: What am I worshipping? Really…
If at the end of the day we achieve all that we can achieve, and become all that we can ever become, what happens next? When we have used up our time here on earth, and it’s time to go.
I know you don’t get to read essays like this one today, where the writer starts with normal things you are expecting to read, and at the end starts to write about something that you never expected. Well, sorry to offend some of my readers, but this is part of my assignment, and I will be wise to be faithful.
Put Him first in whatever that you are doing. We live in a world where intellectuals, scholars, leaders & innovators are ashamed to call on the name of Jesus Christ.
To them, it’s weird & embarrassing. I mean, who talks about Jesus Christ in the middle of an intellectual conversation, they say. Leave Him to the fanatics & Christians [to the pulpit & pews], they say. But He’s all in all. He keeps everything together in perfect unity.
Yes, there are other ways, but those ways lead somewhere else and not to Him.
Am I advertising my religion? No, religion is cheap. This is not religion, this is relationship & fellowship, this is fellowship & truth.
I am like a good man who has found sweet waters in the desert, and I see how it helped my life, and I bring the good news to you, I also want you to enjoy what I am enjoying.
It’s actually that simple…
Think Leadership
“A good leader leads the people from above them. A great leader leads the people from within them.”
M.D. Arnold
Leadership is service. To be honest with you. If you desire to become a leader, then you aspire to become a servant to many.
That’s just the truth about leadership. Don’t let people confuse you about the concept of leadership. This is what it is, and nothing will change it. It’s the truth.
People may distort it, but it will never change. If people want to enjoy true leadership, then they must be ready to serve people with what they have.
If you have issues with serving people, then you don’t want to become a leader, maybe a dictator or something else, but certainly not a leader.
The spirit of true leadership is embedded in the desire to serve people with what you have and who you are.
So, this year, I urge you to wear the cloak of true leadership.
When you attend a conference, and you see all those folks running around to make sure that things go well in the conference, salute them, for those fellows are the true leaders, they are the ones serving.
This is a dimension of leadership many of us don’t want to learn. We think it’s all about being in the front & on the big screen. We forget that people who get to the front & stay in the front are the biggest servants.
The next time you come across an opportunity to serve, you must know within you that it is an opportunity to be a leader, isn’t it awesome, friends? That you discover leadership in the humbling platform of serving.
“The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.”
John Maxwell
I welcome you once more, into a year so beautiful & full of good tidings.
And I am sentenced to making sure that all through this year like I did last year to keep writing for you, my precious readers.
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