BLOOM AND GROW

Sometimes, when I  close my eyes, I see you. I'm wary not to hold your image for too long for fear that you might actually show up in my bedroom. Even though you were my friend, I'm still terrified of ghosts.   I left a comment on your last Instagram post which was regarding the ongoing protests against police brutality, ENDSARS,  To be honest, I didn't read the caption. The image showed clenched fists and bullet holes, it was loud enough.  There were other comments regarding your demise and I had to delete many of the things I wrote to ensure I  didn't come across as overzealous. After all, our friendship was electronic.  I  said I was going to pay you a visit. I say this to a lot of other people too. My aunt thinks I'm keeping a grudge because I haven't visited her in almost two years despite the fact that her house is a 20-minute drive from my place. I swear I'm not a bad person, I just find it easier not to do much on weekends.  I wonder who came up with

  Frankly, many Nigerians still live in this country because they have limited options. Those with means, either live abroad permanently or live here to do business.  Of course, we have such lovely weather and our culture is great and diverse. However,  beyond that, we are seriously lagging behind. Nigerians are very intelligent people and little wonder we shine so bright in the diaspora where the opportunities to do so are available. Today is not the day to hype Nigeria as the place second to none; where milk and honey flows. Today is about doing something to prevent our corrupt leaders from eating up this country-because I'm telling you, they will eat this entire country up. Today is about speaking out!  1. We are speaking out against government officials allocating social infrastructure projects to themselves through sham companies.  2. We are speaking out against civil servants at every level demanding kickbacks from contractors.  3. We are speaking out against police brutality

Engaging with a few underground artists and being a new blogger, I now have an appreciation for people who have been able to achieve a certain level of success as a result of harnessing their gifts and abilities.  The talent market is so crowded that I know for sure that it takes a lot of hard work to be noticed.  This might be why a lot of people give up on their big ideas. However, I know for sure that if you keep working on your dreams, you will strike gold. Being on this journey as well, here are a few things about monetizing your gifts, that I have learned so far:  1. Talent is not enough. Sometimes your gift is also a curse because it is not enough to make you successful. You also need the right belief and a ton of courage.  2. Regular practice is important. You have to perfect your craft. The more you practice, hopefully, the more you know what works and what doesn't. Talent is also a skill, it becomes better with use.  You should check out my other article on practicing you

I know for sure that to be the best that I can be, I need to be in an environment that supports my growth!  Take plants, for example, they need adequate soil nutrients, water, and sunlight to grow. No matter your potential, you need the right system to bloom.  Now, insert Nigeria. Do you think that the Nigerian system can adequately support your growth? No.  I'm not anti-Nigeria, but we also need to address the fact that Nigeria needs to do better for all of us citizens.  So, what should Nigeria be?  However, maybe the right question to ask is, what shouldn't Nigeria be?  1. It should not be a country where a young girl standing at the bus-stop gets shot by a policeman accidentally. Tina  Ezekwe was shot by a policeman who was trying to arrest a driver for  breaking the law.  2. It should not be a country where a young girl is brutally murdered inside a church building while studying for exams. That happened to Vera Omozuwa.  3. It should not be a country where kidnappings are

I've come to the conclusion that the ideas I sit on for the longest periods of time are those I don't really believe in.  I mean, I could come up with the excuse of not having enough time to do all the things I have to do, but I also know that if something is that important to me, I would make time to do it. Many of us sit on ideas for so long and every now and then, we day-dream about our wonderful ideas. We just dream. However, until we actually decide to work on our dreams, we are going to remain dreamers. Dreaming is actually expensive bullsh*t. Have you ever sat across some old guy talking about the dreams he never pursued? These kinds of people make me very uncomfortable because when they talk, what I hear are stories of lives they didn't live, stories of things that could have been but never came to be. I can't overemphasize the importance of chasing the things we dream about.  I know it's easier to dream than to do, because that way, failing is not a possibi

 The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is pick up my phone and check my social media feed. I know this is a bad habit because so many self-help gurus say it is. I also know that social media can have a negative impact on you especially when you use it as a yardstick for your life.  It is always difficult to compare favorably to those you see on screen who always seem to have their sh*t together all the time. I mean you open Instagram and you sink into a sea of beautiful flawless skin, sexy bodies, and big ass lifestyles. On the professional side, you have LinkedIn with everyone on there trying to show off their latest award. "Hey look at me, I just graduated from Harvard!".  After a few minutes of scrolling through my feed, I remind myself that the way to achieve anything in life is by doing (action) and not by looking at others. So I get up and I do my business.  The reality is that I might never achieve the lives of those I admire on social media and that's

 Recently, I came across a post on social media about stinginess being a person's unwillingness to spend money on the things that could push their lives forward, and that insight was mind-blowing for me. Many of us have dysfunctional relationships with money. While some can't seem to keep money at all, others like me have a hard time spending it.  It is important to think of money as a tool to push your life forward and I have made this a commitment, personally.  For example. I always make sure I have internet data for GPS navigation while driving to and fro work. I used to think that buying data for this purpose was expensive but I now see that using GoogleMaps saves me a lot of the time that I would otherwise spend in traffic.  I'm also carrying this mindset over to my work as a blogger especially in terms of promoting my posts on Twitter to reach more people. No matter how talented you are, it's very important to be seen.  So, again, money is a tool. You don't ma