WANDERING THOUGHTS 2

I know I should be writing the sequel to wandering thoughts, but it really has been a busy week and busier two days lie ahead so I forget all the things seeking for my attention and throw myself in front of the TV for some ME time, I deserve it don’t I? Body no be firewood abeg. Biscuits and a drink in hand, I settle in for an evening with my friends in Hollywood.

Some twenty or so minutes later, I am looking at the screen and realize I can’t remember the name of the movie I’m watching and all the stunts they've

 been pulling was lost on me apparently I was deep in thought;

FIRST TIP: It is almost impossible to think strategically when you have things bothering you.

I really wanted to watch a movie, but without realizing it, my mind was still processing the article I was supposed to be writing and it wasn't until I almost spilled my drink did I remember that I brought some biscuits and a drink to aid my movie night. For you to be able to think strategically, you must consciously lay aside all other things that are vying for your attention at that moment or that might be a distraction to your thought process. 

Your mobile devices should not be around you, that red light can be a major distraction it can completely derail your thought process. I hear you thinking you can turn the phone upside down, guess what, the moment that light begins to blink or your device beeps, you cannot be at ease until you scroll through and verify what the alert was for, we are wired that way. Your key focus must be on the particular thing you want to be thinking of at that point, some other quite important things might want to crop up you have to consciously put them aside and apportion a time for it later, I couldn't concentrate on the movie because I had said earlier in the day that I was going to write this piece when I get home. 

This brings me to the second tip:

SECOND TIP: Create time specifically for thinking.

You need to consciously allot time to thinking, this is very important. Remember that as a man thinks in his heart, so is he, if we are a product of our thoughts, then it is imperative that we spend quality time thinking. There is this example that I use to buttress the issue of amount of time spent thinking; if you love food like I do, and your spouse was home all day and you come home to a plate of plain instant noodles and on another occasion you come home to a plate of fried rice (my personal favorite) garnished with salad and plenty meat, which day do you think the effort would yield better results (smack my lips and bat my eye lids)? I leave you to be the judge of that.

When you map out time for thinking, your sub conscious mind registers that time as thinking time and no matter what you are doing, when it gets to that time, your inner reminder will alert you that its thinking time and would keep bugging you until you leave whatever it is you are doing and attend to it or as noted above, you consciously re-schedule the time. I couldn't watch the movie because it was interfering with my writing time.

THIRD TIP: Think one Topic at a time.

As much as possible, make sure that during your strategic thinking time, you are dealing with just one topic at that particular time. This is actually a very difficult task but trust me, it will be worth every effort you put in to it. It is inevitable for other topics not to arise as you go deep into the topic you are dealing with, to help you resolve that;

FOURTH TIP: Have a note pad around when you are thinking strategically.

A lot of things are going to come up when you are thinking and it pays to have a note pad handy, the note pad will actually help you make sure you concentrate on one topic per strategic thinking time. From experience, I have actually come to realize that it is amazing what you can come up with when you begin to consciously connect all the things you wrote down while you were thinking.

FIFTH TIP: Be in a comfortable and relaxed environment.

I’ll advice that you choose a quiet environment; somewhere you can be relaxed and comfortable, the fewer the distractions, the higher the level of concentration. You also don’t want to sleep off in the middle of your thought process so that possibility should also be factored in while choosing a comfortable environment. I’ll advice you stay away from the bedroom as a choice of location except you have a reading table in your bedroom even at that, there is something about the bed in a bedroom that screams “come and sleep”.

SIXTH TIP: It’s not compulsory that you sort it all out in one sitting.

You don’t have to figure it all out in one sitting, there are times when you might have to drop that thought for the time being and revisit it on a later date so don’t beat up yourself when you are unable to crack the thought on your first try. There might just be a missing link somewhere which you might not have the required information at that point, so just let it go and carry on with other activities. I don’t know if you have been with someone before and the person goes “That’s it” and you ask what’s that? And they reply; you won’t understand. Apparently the person just got the connection to a prior thought.

SEVENTH TIP: There are no hard rules to it.

If you noticed I called these points tips that’s because they are just some guidelines it is not by any means exhaustive. The good part to it is that you can actually adopt your own style of strategic thinking and tailor it to suit your person and your time schedule. In as much as we are trying to be strategic, we should also be flexible it takes some pressure off the entire process.

Now I'm super sleepy but remember that as a man thinks in his heart, so is he; we are a product of the thoughts we have thought and acted upon in the past. So looking at yourself now, how do you grade your thoughts?

STAY PRODUCTIVE

AFRICA ARISE

I know I promised to share some tips on how to capture your thoughts and think strategically on my next post, but I came across some statistics over the weekend that left me a bit sad for a while, but after I had gotten over it, strengthened my resolve to champion a pragmatic mind shift in this generation. Maybe I should share some of the statistics I came across with you, that way you might have a better understanding what I’m talking about;

·         The major part of the world live in underdeveloped countries.

·         About 1.2 billion of the 6.7 billion people in the world live in underdeveloped countries (According to thefreedictionary.com, underdeveloped countries are poor unindustrialized countries that are “seeking” to develop its resources by industrialization).

·         According to the Economic and Social Council of The United Nations (UN), there are 50 underdeveloped/least developed countries in the world, 34 of them are in Africa.

·         Half or more of the adult population of 23 countries, mostly in Africa are uneducated (and you find some of these people in key leadership positions).

·         40% of the natural resources in the world are in Africa and Africa makes up just 10% of the population of the world.

·         In 2011, The World Health Organization(WHO) published a list of the Life expectancy in countries all over the world, Japan topped the list with 82.70 years, Canada had 81.54 as her life expectancy, USA 78.57, UK 80.49, UAE 75.67, Sierra Leone 46.53, China 75.56, Nigeria 53.20 by recent reports  Life expectancy in Nigeria has dropped to 47yrs

·         10% of children under 5yrs die at a rate in excess of 100 per 1000 in at least 32 countries mostly in Africa.

I could go on but I have no intentions to dampen your mood just wanted to highlight some information that is out there and represents a reality of the conditions surrounding us.

These statistics had me in deep thought for a long while over the weekend and I asked myself some salient questions like;

Why are we the way we are in Africa specially Nigeria? Did Africa do anything to God that all this negativity is found mainly in Africa? Then again I look at the fact that 40% of all the natural resources in the world is found in Africa so it’s not God’s fault, He God has blessed us exceedingly.

Is this blessing now a curse? Maybe, maybe not but there is just so much that doesn’t add up so I decided to try and localize the issue and figure it out from where I am.

I live in Lagos Nigeria and I have some great minds as friends (I don’t want to name names so that their heads wont pop and increase in size *grins*), anyways by virtue of my interactions with these great minds, I can generally say that Africa is not lacking in human resources, we are not. So if human resources isn't the issue, what then is?

Then in the course of the day, someone mentioned something about the centenary celebrations and how much it is estimated to cost the Nation to celebrate it, then it hit me, Africa’s major problem is our MINDSET. 

The slave trade did not help our “ministry” at all lol. How else can you explain a scenario where across an entire continent, corruption amongst government leaders is the order of the day and the people seem to be handicapped with regards to how to combat the menace? All over Africa, you find in all the countries a few people controlling the wealth of the entire nation while everyone else look up to these few people to be able to make it. An appointment into public offices is not by merit, but by who you know and what you are willing to give up to attain a desired position. The way I see it, we just drove out the white slave traders and replaced them with black slave traders which is why though we claim to be independent, we are still struggling to regain freedom hence the uprising in the South-South part of Nigeria and most recently the Northern part of Nigeria and all over Africa the civil wars abound.

Africa must change her Mind set in order to advance. We must be courageous enough to face the realities of the fact that we are still held bound by a slavery mentality; we must be courageous enough to contest with and confront our Cultures and Beliefs; we must consciously make the change first in our minds and then our actions. Africa must realize that the only thing limiting her is herself. A trip to South Africa will convince you that it is not the land that is cursed but the people in the land have just refused to allow their minds conceive positivity enough to drive developmental change. You and I know that South Africa is the way it is now because the whites were in charge for so long. What's the difference between the white man and the black man? Is it the skin pigmentation? No. Is it the size of the brains? No. What then is it?

The answer is simple, its all in the MIND.

Think about this and answer truthfully to your self; what is the first thing that comes to your mind whenever you see a Caucasian(Oyinbo hehehe)?

No one is Limiting Africa but Africans.

AFRICA ARISE

WANDERING THOUGHTS

It’s not like I woke up this morning knowing that I was going to start a new blog but I sat here this morning in deep thought and you know that feeling when you just take a stroll in your estate (for those of you that live in a gated estate) and you just keep walking with no clear destination in mind, just seeking to clear your head and enjoy the cool fresh air consciously ignoring the cool cars driving by (there are sha some very cool cars in Naija) Obinna focus…. Back to my trail of thoughts, and all of a sudden you look up and realize that you have strayed very far away from home and can’t explain how you got to where you found yourself nor can you explain exactly what it was you were actually thinking about and you begin to retrace your steps and find your way home.

I sat there on my desk and this was exactly how I was feeling this morning and I decided to do what I do best, capture the moment on paper (or in this case on my laptop) lol.

Retracing my steps in my mind had a semblance of walking through a tunnel, knowing what lies at the end of the tunnel but the echo and noise in the tunnel hampering progress. A fear that something will creep out of nowhere and jump at me or devour me kept lurking around somewhere at the back of my mind “fear of the unknown”. Funny thing is, the human mind is so complex it would amaze you how many unnecessary thoughts that jump in when you are trying to do some serious thinking. Some of them scary, some funny, some …… *winks* bottom line is, they are mostly unnecessary at the moment. How would you explain thinking about what to have for dinner by 11am in the middle of a report that is way over due.

Anyways, as I was trying to sort out and compartmentalize my thoughts, I heard a whisper; “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” I pause at this point and begin to reflect on that word.

I’m actually expected to personally bring into captivity every thought that comes into my mind, hmmm! I’m the one that is in charge of everything and what I permit is what stays on my mind but anything I don’t give room for leaves wow!

So all that noise and fear were just distractions to stop me from thinking the right productive thoughts. Little wonder I knew where I wanted to go to but didn’t seem to be getting there as at when due, I was wasting little seemingly insignificant amounts of time per time dwelling on things that did not matter.

How many times have you started developing an idea in your mind and never got around completing the thought process?

How many times has a brilliant idea come to you while you were maybe driving or in transit and you couldn’t capture the idea on paper and later while trying to re-collect the thought, you were unable to do so?

How many times have you forgotten your lines mid sentence because something else came into your mind while you were talking?

If you have at any point found yourself in any of the scenarios mentioned above, not to worry it’s not old age lol, I’ll be sharing some tips on how to capture your thoughts and think strategically on my next post.

STAY PRODUCTIVE