Valuing Vocation

 

Through the decades [and probably centuries], we [and that includes our forefathers] were taught that education is the way that paves us towards our goals and successes in the future.  No wonder, the educational business has been burgeoning everywhere.  And YES, it's an envy to hear one being admitted to one of the Ivy League's very exclusive list of top-tier universities.  BUT hold on.  Should we carry on that approach with regard VALUING VOCATION📗📙📘

Folorunso Alakija, one of Africa's richest women enrolled in secretarial studies diploma that landed her a job as an assistant to executives and bankers before she shifted gears to study fashion design and started her own brand.  She then branched out into real estate and oil exploration and ended up amassing a net worth of $ 1.8 billion as per 2024 data.  Many billionaires WHO succeed would make large donations to big universities WHEREAS Alakija donated at a technology college in Lagos, Nigeria to teach fashion design, welding, pedicure and manicure, hairdressing, makeup artistry and even shoe-making❗❗❗

WHAT's the rationale for that?  Alakija posited that we all can't be in an airconditioned office having all white-collar jobs.  Instead, she espoused that "YOU CAN BE YOUR OWN BOSS AND BUILD MORE CONFIDENCE IN YOURSELF AND PUT FOOD ON THE TABLES OF MANY MORE FAMILIES".  This success story of Alakija debunks the old school's mindset that for one to succeed, you got to equip yourself with a university degree.  Alakija's trajectory shows HOW a university degree is NOT mandatory❎❎❎

Absorbing more Alakija's insights, we can indeed realize that the field of vocational training is particularly relevant for developing economies WHERE university degrees obtained are realistically OUT OF REACH for many across their populations.  Taking a leaf from Alakija's successes, across Africa, particularly in Uganda, Mali and Burundi, the number of secondary technical and vocational education students more than quadrupled the past decade and that trajectory continues till to date✅✅✅

Our takeaway:  Across cultures, studies show that many labor markets see a mismatch between the types of jobs that college graduates have prepared for and expect the job types that are actually hiring.  BUT to qualify, studies confirmed that vocational training programs that are well targeted toward in-demand sectors ideally can bridge the gap and provide a more viable alternative to a well-paying job than a pricey university degree.  Your choice, your take dude💚💛💜

EVERY GAME IS A NEW GAME

 

How often do we hear people blurt, like: NO, BEEN THERE, DONE THAT or WHAT ELSE IS NEW IF I TRY AGAIN or I CAN DO IT AGAIN BUT SURELY I'LL FAIL AGAIN.  Those are NOT alarming statements BUT if shove comes to push, I'll readily admit that hearing those statements seem like alarm bells giving us the cue that there's a TICKING TIMEBOMB now activated.  In the NBA, the world's undisputed basketball championship grounds, WHEN the tourney reaches playoffs stage, until today, the Best-of-7 format is adopted until the Top 2 teams advance to the championship round.  So, WHY is that Best-of-7 format that popular till today?  Simple.  It's because EVERY GAME IS A NEW GAME, period📗📙📘

NBA history has shown over and over again that even if one team gets overwhelmed in Game 1, DON'T give up on that team because there's a 51% probability that that team will bounce back.  WHY?  Precisely it's because EVERY GAME IS A NEW GAME.  WHAT does that mean?  In life, after we lost 'big time' today, WHAT is expected of us is to go back to the drawing board, find the root cause of our failure and find the fix💧💧💧

Much as we would struggle in our debacles, never count ourselves out of the game because EVERY GAME IS A NEW GAME [unless you want to lose by default and play the next game exactly the way you lost the previous game???].  So, WHAT exactly do we do come next game?  Regroup.  Review.  Reassess.  Re-plot.  Re-plan.  And RESET.  To RESET means you have to forget that you lost the previous game as well✅✅✅

Let's NOT look farther than doing a LOOK-UP of our annual New Year's RESOLUTIONS.  Statistics show that just by the eighth day in January, 25 percent of people WHO made resolutions have failed to keep them.  And moving forward by end of the year, fewer than 10 percent of resolutions will have been kept.  Some psychologists point to our willpower as the culprit.  We only have so much energy to put on new endeavors and as the day-to-day grind of new obligations pile on, we lose our motivation to reach the goal we enthusiastically set at the beginning of the year.  LIKE losing 30 pounds in 30 days sounds great on a magazine cover BUT its a 'STRETCH GOAL' for most people.  Stumbling, even once, will likely dampen and even end up destroying one's motivation😡😡😡

Our takeaway:  I heard this slogan before:  THE POWER OF NEW BEGINNINGS.  Humans, it seems, are attracted to the power of NEW BEGINNINGS.  Scientists call the dates to WHICH we assign such BEGINNINGS as those 'temporal landmarks'.  Now, here's a modest mental hack I want to share.  Every year on my birthday, I'd take stock of WHERE I've been the past 12 months and WHERE I want to reach in another 12 months.  Understanding that mental hack remains as my powerful tool as it leads me to build FRESH STARTS, a mindset which I humbly take pride as in parallel with the motto that EVERY GAME IS A NEW GAME💚💛💜

Those Wild Cards a.k.a. TOUGH EMOTIONS

 

EMOTIONS are cards and TOUGH EMOTIONS are the WILD CARDS in life.  NOT one of us is shielded from all flavors and versions of EMOTIONS.  WHICH reminds me, many years ago, I was caught in particularly strong mental rumination as I agonized over a decision that could be a 'game changer' in my life, WHICH meant my trajectory can go either north OR south.  And for months, I did fight in my head against that situation and my own fears, desperately wanting it to be different than it was💚💛💜

In many particular moments in my past, I felt like standing on my own feet and yet I was being gripped with fear and indecision, all rolled into one.  And in a sudden twist of things, I did turn toward my fear to take a curious and closer look at WHAT was actually there.  I somehow stopped resisting and I let go of the struggle to pave the way for my fears to go away.  From my limited vantage point, I came to grips with very valuable realizations💧💧💧

Underneath all the ebbs and flows of my emotional turmoil, I came to acknowledge that NO matter how much I tried to get a good handle of things and even do all the 'RIGHT' things, I had to come face-to-face with my own vulnerability and putting my hand atop my heart. In the subsequent days, weeks and months that followed, WHILE my situation hardly changed [NEITHER to be better OR to be worse], something did release in me akin to that loud knocking on your main door in the dead of the night WHEN you felt so defenseless and vulnerable.  Within myself, I somewhat peered at WHAT lay behind my fears only to find acceptance of life as it is, with fear only being a part of it💥💥💥

And in my willingness to look at and be with fear itself, I also discovered my courage to help me move forward, WHICH had NOT been present in my resistance and struggle.  Lo and behold, I was able to move forward with much greater ease and trust in my capacity.    Indeed, those unpleasant EMOTIONS often arise WHEN there is a discrepancy between the way things are and the way we want them to be✅✅✅

Our takeaway:  NOT to speak like SUPERMAN but I did learn the ropes of softening those wild cards in life a.k.a. TOUGH EMOTIONS.  Firstly, I would start to think of the circumstance that's causing me a lot of TOUGH EMOTIONS and in the midst of it, I try NOT to get lost too much in a storyline, BUT just get in touch with WHAT it is that's troubling me.  Segundo, of all the EMOTIONS, I'll choose the one I most strongly feel.  Thirdly, instead of resisting, I soften around those EMOTIONS, refocusing my awareness on the edges of the EMOTIONS😊😊😊

Are We Missing The Boat Here [With More TOOLS Than SKILLS]?

 

Are we missing the boat these days?  That boat that would have brought us over to learn our SKILLS?  BUT instead, we are stuck in a quagmire, overwhelmed and buried under tons and tons of TOOLS which have been available, on-the-fly and right-on-our fingertips.  WHETHER your device is running on Android OR IOS is immaterial because both Google Play Store and App Store are right there.  And free download sites of free wares are just one too many, you will end up dizzier and more confused more than ever.  Are We Missing The Boat Here [With More TOOLS Than SKILLS]📗📙📘

You might stomp me with "WHAT'S THE FUSS?"  Here's the fuss dude.  With technology taking over our lives [regardless WHETHER you live in the First World OR even deep down Myanmar or the remote African regions, the point is almost all of us [and that includes me, BTW] are caught up in learning new tools and newer tools and then the newest tools.  Point is, we should NOT get too caught up in learning TOOLS WHEN it's the SKILLS that will help us most📌📌📌

You might retort that TOOLS do help us.  Without those TOOLS, even our SKILLS may have been of little help.  True and very true BUT here's the flip side.  Let us NOT get mixed up between TOOLS and SKILLS.  WHILE TOOLS will help us cross over to perform a specific step OR action, SKILLS will equip and reinforce our arsenal of capabilities for the long haul.  That's the huge difference between them.  Tools come and go WHEREAS SKILLS will get developed especially if we keep enhancing and nurturing them.  For techies, web development is a good example because of the multiple technology stacks and tools and each of them peddle their respective UPSIDEs & DOWNSIDEs💧💧💧

True, that analogy may make me sound to be contradicting because logic will tell us, WHY bother with other technologies WHEN you as a techie can do multiple things in a single stack?  Let's take a more practical view here.  If your goal is simply to get a job, then surely keeping your options open is the best way to go BUT WHAT IF if you're looking at 5 potential businesses.  Your options get narrowed then💥💥💥

Our takeaway:  Sticking up to the TOOLS thread, once you learned a TOOL, the theory of it will help us learn a similar tool BUT WHAT IF you learn programming languages, WHILE they have similarities, they vary in syntax and in the long haul, your capabilities widen based on your SKILLS which could have spread out.  For those worrying that they might end up as a MASTER OF NONE, just DON'T worry too much, DON'T pre-empt problems WHICH very much farther down the road.  LIVE IN THE MOMENT, LIVE IN THE PRESENT and endeavor to be more SKILLED while TOOLS are just available on-the-fly😌😌😌

Underlying Triggers of Low Energy

 

If you're feeling overly tired OR have that little energy left, you're NOT alone.  BUT for your exact reasons, it's probable that the root causes of your dilemma is quite unique from many others.  BUT WHY?  Are you spending a lot more time on movie streaming?  OR on your mobile apps games?  OR your sleeping hours is averaging less than seven hours?  OR there's just NO quality in your sleep?  OR you hardly exercise OR go for fitness exercises?  OR besides your unhealthy sleeping habits, your food intake is NOT healthy enough???

BTW, those are my wild guesses BUT if I did hit it right a few times, maybe you are NOT that really serious enough about anything and you are NOT really investing in yourself.  BUT if you are ever that serious enough about living a better life, you would actually start to give a damn about your situation and move to change and transform.  BUT cutting across the most common causes, fatigue may be triggering your LOW ENERGY BUT WHAT's imperative is WHAT'S causing your fatigue❎❎❎

Verily true, fatigue may be caused by simple factors like a lack of sleep OR coming down with a cold OR flu.  However, to borrow the doctor's typical prognosis, fatigue can also be caused by underlying health conditions.  And in most cases, fatigue can be remedied by lifestyle OR even dietary modifications, even correcting a nutrient deficiency OR treating an underlying medical condition.  Still, to improve fatigue, you need to get to the bottom of WHAT's causing it.  The worst disservice we can do to ourselves is to ignore these scary tell-tale signs of recurring spells of LOW ENERGY because essentially, these are manifestations pointing and leading us to dig down farther for the root cause💧💧💧

NOT to speak like the medical experts, they are one in saying that NOT getting enough sleep is essential to our overall health.  Unfortunately, many of us DON'T get enough sleep, WHICH may then lead to fatigue.  And to quote the medics, during sleep, our body performs a number of critical processes, including releasing important growth hormones and repairing and regenerating cells.  That explains WHY most people end up waking up feeling refreshed, alert and energized after a night of quality sleep.  To quote the experts, even though sleep time should be individualized, adults need to get at least 7 hours of quality sleep, period💥💥💥

Our takeaway:  Skipping the discussion about deficiencies, I'd like to piggy-back on those 'STRESS' threads WHERE it is highlighted that chronic stress may lead to stress-related exhaustion disorder, a medical condition characterized by psychological and even physical symptoms of exhaustion.  And furthermore, chronic stress may cause structural and even functional changes in our brain and may even lead to chronic inflammation, contributing to symptoms like fatigue.  LOW ENERGY may seem to be like one of those petty issues BUT if it's recurring more often than it should, it behooves that we DON'T gloss over it and just shrug off our shoulders because things may seem worse than it looks bad😖😖😖

Giving More Impetus To LISTENING

 

Is LISTENING worth our time today?  Me thinks we owe it to ourselves to dig a bit beyond the surface and figure out if LISTENING is one of those endemic and chronic causes of disconnects in our interactions either within our family home, at the workplace or in the midst of our business forays.  The scariest part is that one slightest disconnect can quickly spiral to become a full-blown 'winner-take-all' conflict

Let's take a step back and figure out the most common catalyst of communications and that generally, there is a purposeful reason for it.  Let's exclude here all the idle talk of kibitzers and nosy folks around the neighborhood.  In short, generally, at least one of the two parties has a genuine reason for starting a conversation and once you oblige when your arm is pulled closer, LISTEN sincerely

WHETHER the purpose of the initiator is more on relationships [either at work OR at home], OR financials OR health OR simply tapping the helpline for advice and counselling, it behooves that we give our 100% attention because in the first place, we obliged WHEN we got pulled over, right?  IF you're engaged in something that CAN'T be disrupted, in a polite manner, you should explicitly excuse yourself

WHAT IF someone wants to confide to you his/her personal health concerns and your body language somehow gave the impression that you were obliging to have that tete-a-tete and while your friend starts narrating, here you are, so engaged and 'hostaged & hogtied' by and unto your own smartphone???

Our takeaway:  Allow me to piggy-back on that age-old cliche "DON'T DO UNTO OTHERS WHAT YOU DON'T WANT OTHERS TO DO UNTO YOU".  Let's face it.  IF and WHEN you get caught with conflicting tasks OR priorities, to be fair, be transparent enough to excuse yourself [because sometimes, we could be in an 'intense' exchange of messages in social media WHICH may be deemed more important for you.  In short, without shoving off someone, you can politely ask LIKE 'CAN I GET BACK TO YOU IN 5 minutes?'

Dealing With Our 'BAD DAYS'

 

So, HOW's your BAD DAYS?  Please DON'T tell us that you never had one?  We've all had those days WHERE it feels like nearly everything goes wrong.  WHILE you were running late for work, you spilled coffee on your new pants.  Then on your way home, your car broke down and you ended up missing your best friend's birthday party.  Ouchhhh.  WHAT IF you get hit with that BAD LUCK in a streaky way?  That's one kind of a nightmare because that can bog you down and even mentally drain you📘📙📗

Some other time, all it takes is one bad event to turn your GOOD day into a BAD one.  LIKE a rough meeting at work can put you in a negative frame of mind for the rest of the day and make you look at everything through those negative blinders.  WHATEVER the cause OR the trigger was, I can attest that it's damn hard to dig yourself out of a crummy day.  On the other hand, it is NOT that impossible IF and WHEN you are determined enough to extricate yourself out of that deep foxhole.  And WHILE there is NO cure to instantly turn your day around, there are tools you can have under your belt to keep a lousy day from hijacking your overall outlook on any given day💙💛💚

Psychologists coined a proven trick tagged as '3M'  for MINDFULNESS, MOVING and MENTAL reset.  WHEN we're in the midst of a bad day, it can be hard to stop and reflect on your feelings because sometimes, a BAD day is just a BAD day.  BUT a lot of times, there may be a deeper cause behind your emotional response to things going wrong.  Is it either anger, sadness OR resentment?  Researches have proven that knowing and naming your feelings is incredibly helpful✅✅✅

Other studies do tell us that in order to SHAKE OFF a bad day, you need to do just that.  GET ACTIVE and MOVE although let's admit it, this is easier than done especially WHEN we are so overwhelmed by our emotions that we DON'T want to move at all.  BUT if you do consider to MOVE your body, your mind will follow.  I can attest to that proven best practice the days WHERE the stars were NOT aligned in my favor because I realized that sitting still gives our FEELINGS that time to 'fester', if you may call it😌😌😌

Our takeaway:  As I had my fair share of BAD DAYS many a zillion times in the past, I can attest that the last thing we want to opt for is to 'BABY SIT' those BAD DAYS.  LIKE deciding to cancel your TO-DO List.  LIKE locking yourself in the room the rest of the day.  LIKE ignoring the people WHO want to talk to you.  LIKE shutting off yourself and literally 'exiling' yourself somewhere even for just a day.  Those WON'T fix your bad days.  You got to gather and have that gumption to endeavor turning things around from BAD to GOOD at all cost❗❗❗

When Your Ranking Is HIGH But Your Clicks Are LOW

 

In the SEO [Search Engine Optimization] world, WHAT matters most are two variables namely the RANKINGs and the CLICKs [and nothing lese].  BUT we're NO SEO experts so we won't dip into that thread.  Instead, we'd like to dive into the analogy in our life, that is, WHEN you seem popular [and therefore your RANKING Is HIGH] BUT you may NOT be genuinely accepted by your community or your colleagues [and therefore your CLICKS are LOW]!@#$%?

This brings me to a bit touchy stuff to discuss.  In life, by circumstance OR even as planned, we get involved in various endeavors, sometimes ending up as recognized and accepted by our peers, our colleagues and/or communities.  BUT the flip side of everything else is to really ask our own selves are very genuine [and brutally frank] question:  Are we genuinely appreciated by the people we get engaged in life???

This is quite debatable BUT the general concept of being popular is manifested for either being well-known OR having that high degree of visibility in a social circle.  It could stem from one's social media following being seen either as influential OR known OR probably recognized for one's achievements OR characteristics.  BUT if you're in that "NOT SO" bracket, it may imply to a lack of deep OR meaningful connections despite one's given popularity within a group💥💥💥

We've known all of them.  That good-looking, charismatic and impeccably dressed kids WHO were [undoubtedly] smart and sometimes, cool and trendy.  YES maybe you were one of them [and frankly, you should beat your chest with pride on that].  OR maybe you were one of those 'unnoticeable' kids WHO were satisfied enough being on the sidelines, cheering up the 'up and coming' so called 'leaders of the pack'.  YES, I vividly recall my high school days WHICH was a unique experience.  It's akin to that coin.  We're either popular OR NOT popular.  We were either the sociable one OR the plainly dressed one, existing incognito [even way back before Google became part of our daily lives]💚💛💜

Our takeaway:  This is NOT a hard choice to decide BUT eventually, it's worth asking ourselves.  Do we prefer to be POPULAR by status?  OR be POPULAR by likeability?  And likeability may NOT necessarily mean to be in that high of a status in society BUT one WHOSE contributions and/or impact to the group OR to the community is recognized well enough.  And to me, that's the ultimate plum to achieve.  LIKE at the workplace, WHEN I witnessed several of my mentees going up the corporate ladder and have now become full-fledged managers, I strongly felt that their sense of achievement  resonates well enough as to WHETHER our ranking is HIGH yet our clicks are LOW😡😡😡

That 'ELEVATOR PITCH'

 

Bonus question to everyone:  WHAT percentage of your questions OR ASKs were either responded OR addressed to, within 1-2 minutes?  If I may guess, I'll speculate that approximately less than 5% of those questions OR ASKs were responded to OR addressed within that very tight window spanning 1-2 minutes.  You might retort LIKE 'WHAT RESULTS OR OUTCOME can you expect in 1-2 minutes?'  Precisely, that's a good question.  BUT do you know that many successful folks have mastered that 'ELEVATOR PITCH' over time???

In these times WHERE technology is the dominant factor [if NOT player] in almost all communications.  And from my own experiences culled through the years, the most difficult part through the whole gamut of a specific thread is starting it off, opening it up.  I recall those ticklish issues in the past WHERE the 'MESSENGER' apps was NOT yet existing and yet, I was the 'MESSENGER' of topics that need to be escalated to the senior tier levels📗📙📘

Typically, you will either shoot out an email OR get into that fortress of an office of C-Suite level of executives.  Frankly, either option is really NEITHER enticing NOR palatable given the sensitivity of a topic you want to raise, and given its ramifications that could spread out across to multiple workstreams📌📌📌

By now, you're probably so eager-beaver [OR do I say 'itching'] to ask WHAT's the fuss of that elevator pitch.  In a sarcastic manner, you might tell me WHAT IF THERE'S NO ELEVATOR in the first place.  No problem dude.  If there's NO ELEVATOR, surely the executive will go through the flights of stairs, right?  And that's not far different from the ELEVATOR PITCH we're pushing for✅✅✅

Our takeaway:  Allow me to spill the beans here, without putting our executives on the spot.  WHY do ELEVATOR PITCHes really matter?  Primero, those are the precarious moments WHEN you're able to reach the 'beach head' and bring up a subject OR topic to the boss.  By itself, your overflowing sweat should have simmered down.  Secondly, studies show that generally, bosses will either respond favorably OR in a worst case scenario, will remain cool, without manifesting his eventual reaction BUT that is a much better 'staging area' rather than you at the receiving end of the wrath and fury.  In short, an ELEVATOR PITCH can defuse the severity of a discussion.  BUT dude, this takes practice and preparedness, never an overnight stuff😔😔😔

Can Small Things Help Build Our Future Success?

 

Typically, our life aspirations are pretty much aligned, LIKE, to be successful, to land a rewarding job in a top-tier organization, to eventually have a brand-new car you can call as 'MINE', settle down and build your family then buy your family home.  In essence, all those aspirations are laudable.  BUT if you step back and validate yourself if you can actually become that person you dream and aspire to achieve, let's rethink in case there were factors OR reasons that you were simply 'fantasizing' about reaching those milestone successes.  And obviously, in case you have reached those points, you WON'T need to dream about one day making it happen.  Instead, you'd be living it!  So, Can Small Things Help Build Our Future Success???

True, it is easy to get intimidated OR daunted by the idealized future we've created in our mind because from our own perspective, we seem to be a million miles away from reaching that stage.  In fact, at that point in time, HOW can you assess if you'll ever reach those points WHICH is quite a tough call to make.  Sometimes, the contrast between WHO you are and WHO you want to be is so stark, you might wonder if it's just a pipe dream???

Playing devil's advocate, sometimes we'll here at the workplace that WHEN it comes to winning at work, we have to focus on the big things and we DON'T need to sweat the small stuff??? Not so fast, dude.  Because in real life, those small stuff do matter and based on the wealth of experience we have behind us, I can somehow claim that it might even matter more than you could possibly imagine.  In the early years WHEN I was an upstart, those 'bread crumbs' matter and I managed to gather it through sheer perseverance✅✅✅

YET YET YET, everyone talks about the 'BIG PICTURE', right?  BUT c'mon, if we dissect things, every 'BIG PICTURE' that is ever created is created with one brush stroke at a time.  There was simply NO 'Big Bang' that generated that 'BIG PICTURE'.  I came across a historical footnote stating that Leonardo da Vinci's friends mocked him for using those small brushstrokes for coming up with his Mona Lisa masterpiece.  The cynics said that it took him FOREVER!  BUT at the end of the day, the egg was on their faces because Da Vinci had a masterpiece.  WHAT that tells us is that indeed, little things matter especially when it is taken from a collective and comprehensive perspective.  Indeed, WHAT better testimonial than that Mona Lisa work of art recognized through centuries💚💛💜

Our takeaway:  WHILE there is NO crystal-clear formula we can execute to generate success, let's keep things simpler here.  If you're a chess woodpusher, DON'T belittle even the probably pawns you can prey on because eventually, you can build up from there through the middle game until you reach the end game with reinforced defenses ready enough to initiate the offensive when the slightest opportunity arises.  CAN SMALL THINGS HELP BUILD OUR FUTURE SUCCESS?  Absolutely dude!!!