One good turn

Just the other day, a friend and I gave a government official a lift, as we had gotten accustomed to doing. I must admit, I wasn’t too excited on this particular occasion as I opined that it would stifle my gisting flow. I decided to snooze a little, opening my eyes at intervals.

Suddenly , I heard a loud boom. My eyes immediately became wide open. I wondered, who just bashed the car but lo and behold, I saw steam coming out of the car bonnet and water seeping on the floor. Alas, the car radiator had burst!

This official immediately swung into action and being a traffic controller by profession, he did a good job directing other vehicles to assist our movement. We eventually parked the car at a convenient spot and I wondered how do I navigate to the office? As an icing on the cake, there was fuel scarcity in town.

As though reading my mind, a senior colleague of this official was riding in a taxi and stopped when he saw his colleague. Voila a replacement ride.

Although, expectedly, I got to the office late, I could not help but marvel that one good turn indeed births several others.

There’s more to success than just efforts

So I made beans pottage about a week ago and was pleased with the results. Encouraged, I decided to repeat the effort this week, paying more attention to details. I added extra supposedly yummicious ingredients, packed up my lunch and rushed off to work. Would you believe it, when I tasted the end result, it didn’t seem worth all the extra efforts.

My point with this culinary experience recount, is that while efforts are required in many endeavours, achieving the desired results requires more than just efforts. Some call this extra something luck, while others call it favour or grace.

I guess sometimes, one achieves more with less as it is written, the race is not to the swift…

The Fruits of Perseverance

Today is an epoch-making day in the annals of Nigeria’s political history because aside from the fact that a new president has been elected, the emergence of this president-elect is a classic example of the spirit of perseverance or never say never if you like.

This president-elect had been contesting elections for at least the past twelve years but failure to achieve his desired result did not deter him, not even the fact that he had to wait for an additional four years in each instance to try again.

Anyway sha, while we await the aftermath of this new birth, the words of one oldies rings true and I sign out with it…

“You can get it if you really want, you can get it if you really want, you can get it if you really want but you must try, try and try, try and tr…..y, you’ll succeed at last!”

 

Down memory lane

I finally put together the several loose sheets containing words of farewell bid me by my peers at the end of our secondary school days. As I was finalising the year book, I could not help but go through some of those words again. Twelve years down the line, some of those words still motivate me. In particular, the words of a peer who turned out to be the best graduating student of her department at the university struck me.

She wished me success in my endeavours and noted that at some point in my life, I may not succeed in some of my endeavours as I would wish, but that at such times, I should look inwards and remember how I had fared in the past and thereby encourage myself to persevere.

Looking at those words today, I realise that those were the words of a teenage sage. The truth is I have had periods of low and even failure since that time and in those periods, I was able to persevere by keeping it at the back of my mind that tough people outlast tough times.

So, I sign out by encouraging anyone going through a tough situation to keep keeping on!

Two sides of a courtroom

I was in a courtroom recently and after observing the antics of two lawyers handling two different cases, it was impressed upon me again, that the right attitude can give one an advantage.

The first lawyer had a request he wanted the court to grant and even though the court was not inclined to granting the request initially, his logical entreaties eventually swayed the court in his favour.

Enter the second lawyer. This one was loud (and I don’t mean his voice) and spoke in a badgering, condescending tone to the court whilst belabouring the issues. The court had to say in a pleasant voice, ‘counsel, it’s not a do or die affair.’ Of course, the courtroom burst into laughter and that lawyer was momentarily perplexed.

For me, the lesson learnt is that while it is good to labour, doing so with the right attitude is key.

*cheers to a fulfilling week.*

The Search

I am trying to bridle my excitement as I write this. You see, I just found the punched-paper packets I had been in search of for the past twelve (yes twelve!) years.

The story of this new discovery dates back to my last year in secondary school where in the manner of those days, I decided to make a personal year book of sorts. Anyway my own book consisted of loose pages, hence the search for the perfect covering for posterity sake.

Aside from the joy I am currently feeling, the lesson for me is that the fruits of patience are often plucked at unlikely places. I say this because I had no inkling that I would get the punched-paper packets at the particular place. In fact, I went in search of something else at that place which ironically, I did not find.

So, always think through before settling for less in your search for that ideal situation/thing/person. *smiles*

Communication gap

One February 14, in the spirit of agape love rather than a lack of more fun alternatives, I assisted a senior colleague to review an article.

About four hours down the line (yea, the review was that intense!), I happily sent my response by clicking the reply button and for back-up, even informed the colleague by text message that my job was done. I then proceeded to enjoy the rest of my day and weekend as it were.

Would you believe it, on Monday morning, I received a call from this colleague that the document had not been received; and imagine my surprise. At the point of re-sending the document to this colleague, I discovered some extra letters in the name which had gone unnoticed simply because I merely hit reply without reviewing that important detail. Communication gap indeed you might say.

Another lesson I learnt from that experience, is the need to constantly review everything we sign off on, particularly when we did not make them. So beware of those emails a colleague prepares and directs you to send, because embedded in the words, may just be some embarrassing typos or issues that may come back to haunt you.

Cheers to a fulfilling week.

Consistency

The words that readily come to mind when I come across the word, ‘consistent,’ are words like reliable and dependent. In other words, consistency brings positive notions to the mind.

Consistency is not usually about doing or not doing an earth-shattering thing. Rather, consistency is more about the little efforts repeated day in day out which lead to the conclusion that one is reliable.

A smile comes to my face when I recall way back in elementary school when pupils and students often looked with disdain at any of their colleagues who seemed to be favoured by their teachers because they could always be relied upon to provide solutions to their take-home assignments as opposed to copying the solutions from their friends at the due dates.

Today, in the office environment, even though colleagues may snicker at their colleagues who do what should be done at the right time, they inevitably envy such colleagues secretly because when it comes right down to it, consistency pays.

So, here’s raising my glass to consistent friends out there. Keep up the good work!

FEAR!!!

It’s now about *ticks off fingers* ten years since yours truly sang off-key to an entire congregation -at the top of the voice- one may add. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like this chic had a naturally bad voice, rather fear had gripped her vocal chords.

Which brings me to my point that fear, like weed, is an unwanted phenomenon which stifles the growth of one’s potential; and just to be clear, living in denial won’t make the fear disappear. So what can be done, one may ask?

Well, I do not have all the answers but one thing that I’m sure of, is that if one does not face fear head-on, it does not go away; if anything, it only intensifies. I know this because ever since the chic used in the intro conquered her fear of singing in public, she has been able to croon sonorous tunes anywhere.

Wishing us all a fearless February.

Grace

The other day, just as I was about to click the send button for a mail I had composed, i just had this nag to give the words another once over and voila, I discovered typographical errors that had potentials of pouring sand sand in my garri.

A number of people have had quite a few of such experiences at varying degrees; and the experiences are not only limited to the office environment.

Then, it struck me, that those examples are just typical examples of grace in action. What is grace you may ask? I borrow the words of my cleric and define grace as “unmerited favour.” because that is simply what it is, in my view.

Have you almost made a bumbling mistake by a potential action or inaction only to right that error just at the nick of time? That is grace.

Yea, and I managed to correct those typos before hitting send. 

In sum, my wish for us all as we go through this month of love, is that grace will locate us in all our endeavours.