BLOOM AND GROW

Your body is the vehicle for your life and the first step to achieving a wholesome life is taking care of your body and mind. I started to take exercise seriously after my mum passed from a heart-related condition likely worsened by her obesity. My grandmother who was also obese died from a heart condition. So, I knew that  I had to embrace a healthier lifestyle if I wanted a different fate from theirs.  Holistic health goes beyond losing weight. It is about taking care of your spirit, mind, and body.  Before you read  my tips for making healthy habits stick, please think over these questions below as a way of examining yourself  1. Am I taking care of my body? 2. Am I getting enough sleep? 3. Am I doing enough exercise?  4. Am I eating healthy? 5. Do I feel good about my body? 6. Do I have joy in my life? To have better answers to these questions, you need to develop healthy habits, and here are my top tips, tried, and tested.  1. Find a Gym Close to ...

Discipline is such an important trait to develop. Often times, it is what separates professionals from dilettantes. It really is the currency of super-achievers and without some level of self-discipline, you cannot achieve much in life. Below are my top five tips for developing self-discipline. 1. Do Something You Enjoy. I have learned that it is easier to stay consistent at something you enjoy. There is this idea that humans are always seeking the path of least resistance. So, it might be less difficult to develop self-discipline if you engage in an activity that comes naturally to you. Otherwise, find something meaningful to you, even if you don't like the activity. For example, I am learning French on Duolingo and it is not something I particularly enjoy doing. But I understand the significance of learning a second language to having a global career, so I just keep at it.  2. Be a Part of a Community:  I strongly believe that self-discipline can be fueled by interactio...

Like other nights before any big day, I can't fall asleep; excitement and anxiety wouldn't let me. I heave a deep sigh and reach for my transistor radio to tune into a station still playing some music at 3 a.m.  My only sister is fast asleep next to me and, honest to God, she snores like a camel- I fight the urge to poke her, to scold her for sleeping anyhow. I love my sister now but this wasn't always the case growing up.  I called her "BBC" because she was so nosy; always telling our parents what I said or did wrong in their absence.  "Mummy, guess what! Fadekemi's teacher beat her today because she didn't do her homework and she was crying like a baby."  My mum would look at me with piercing eyes and ask if Remi was telling the truth.  No matter what I said, the scene always closed with my mum hitting me with whatever object was within her reach.  I am 50 today and in a few hours, there will be loud music and lots of food. There wi...

Nike logo. from Nike.com I recently learned that doing certain things half-heartedly might not be such a bad idea. According to this school of thought, we don't always have to feel like it, to actually do it. Getting things done even when all the conditions of work are not perfect might actually be the thing that makes us become better. As a writer, I love it when I am in the mood to write. I find that in those times, the writing comes with ease and I feel a certain energy that psychologists have termed "the flow".  Being in the perfect mental state to work is great but what happens to our work when we don't feel like working? It suffers. So, perhaps the logic of just doing it might help us in certain areas of our lives. At the end of the day, practice makes perfect and the more we do, the better we become.  If you run a mile twice a week even when you don't feel like running, that's four miles at the end of the week.  If you practice learn...

I am starting a series here on achieving personal and academic success. So, in the next 7 episodes, I will be interviewing a few people about how they achieved or are achieving success in their academic or professional lives. These guys are actually close friends and I chose them because there are also very kind people. I dislike successful people who are arrogant, so having a good character was an important criterion for my selection.  Here is my story:  I didn't know that I was not very bright until I got to primary 4. I had a class teacher who was very hard on those of us that were struggling academically. She had a bias for the bright students and hardly ever smiled at those of us that did not do very well. A girl named Lara and I were actually the poorest in her class and we were sort of comrades.  Anyways, my rock bottom was actually being called out for cheating during a class exercise. For some reason, I found myself sitting next to one of ...

I think it is remarkable that the things we create in our lifetime can be a source of inspiration to others when we are gone.  We are beneficiaries of the efforts of the people who lived and died many decades ago. I think of this as standing on the shoulders of giants; the fact that we can create something bigger out of what is currently available. And this is true for almost every facet of our lives from healthcare to technology, and to entertainment. Think about the extent of innovation in communication that has happened because the internet exists. Now, referring to the arts, my favorite example of this is Sam Smith's soulful version of Whitney Houston's How will I know Know which was featured in an episode of the hit medical drama Grey's Anatomy. Sam Smith was not even born in 1985 when the song was originally recorded by Whitney Houston. In broad terms, the power of creativity is to influence others and a good example is Literature. I have read quite a few b...

Every day, we receive updates on the number of new cases and deaths due to the Covid-19 disease. However, I want us to remember that those numbers are real people with families, hobbies, and places they once loved. Chimamanda Adiche once pointed to the fact that we must let numbers co-exist with human stories. My advice for managing during these times:  1. Blind optimism is probably bullshit at the moment. Rather, confront the facts but never lose hope. I’d say, find the best way to live at the moment and hope for the best. With the stay at home order, our living systems have been disrupted and giving up hope seems likely for most people. However, I urge you to find that activity that brings you joy and engage in it while the lockdown lasts. 2. Remember to play after every storm. I believe that this should be a mantra for how we live our lives. The quote is from a young boy (Mattie Stepanek) who died from complications due to muscle dystrophy. We must all be reminded ...

Hey guys,  Just to highlight two stories about not giving up.  Cheryl Strayed, in 1994,  decided to hike for 1,100 miles across the Pacific North West Trail in the United States. It’s about 80 miles from Lagos to Ibadan and that means that Cheryl trekked from Lagos to Ibadan more than 10 times. In those 3 or so months trekking in the wild, she came face to face with wild animals and had to survive life-threatening weather conditions. She was not in the best shape to embark on such a journey but she decided to embark on it anyway. She didn’t stop when her boots gave way;  when she had run out of drinking water and money or after so many dangerous encounters.   In the end, she wrote a book called Wild to narrate what she had experienced, and that same story became the thing that launched her career as a writer. Wild: A Journey from Lost to Found became a New-York Times bestseller and was later adapted for screenplay.   The second story is fiction a...

Folake Odediran: Chair, Sanofi Nigeria, Ghana. Image: Twitter I attended the YP Lagos group mentoring event in 2019 but if not for the book I am currently reading (Anatomy of the Spirit by Caroline Myss) which touches on the subject of closing unfinished business amongst other things, this blog post would not have happened. I learned from Caroline that a lot of us are depleted of our energies because we have a lot of tasks we have mentally committed to, but we keep procrastinating.   I wanted to write this blog post immediately after the event but here we are 10 months later. Better late than never. I was one of the six people mentored by Ms. Folake Odediran, The country chair for Sanofi, Nigeria and Ghana at the event and these are the things I learned. You learn how to cut down trees by cutting them down. That is, you learn by doing. Time is not your problem. Your problem is what you do with time. Have a good profile on Linkedin. In life, what you want will ...

Photo: twitter.com/ibukunawosika      Today I attended a group mentoring session called The Life Series with Ibukun Awosika. Mrs. Ibukun Awosika is a forerunner in the furniture manufacturing business in Nigeria and the current chairperson of First Bank of Nigeria Plc. Also speaking at the event were Mr. Asue Ighodalo (the chairman of Sterling Bank Plc.) and Mr. Sola Adepetun (the chairman of Standard Chartered Bank Plc.). Below I share a few nuggets from today’s meeting so that I don’t forget them and because someone else might find them useful as well.  I have highlighted my favourite nuggets in bold letters. 1.        It is within your power to write your story regardless of the circumstances of your birth.   You did not choose your parents but you get to decide how your story ends . 2.      The things you do in your past will show up in your future so be mindful of the choices you...

Have a wonderful week ahead. And I hope these words inspire you as much as they inspire me.  Bless! - Tobi Amokeodo 

We should be concerned about our world. As Chimamanda Adichie alluded in her 2019 commencement speech at the American University (AU), we should try to change a tiny bit of our world.  We don't realize that when we choose to do this, we are indirectly making efforts to improve our lives.  When this subject of "changing our world" comes up, we are quick to think this means we should go green or save the endangered animals. However, let's remember that our world is also about humans and our social-cultural exchanges.  So, below I share my take on four very important points  on changing the world, raised by Adichie in that speech  ,  1. DO SOMETHING "Do something is to try", says Adichie. In my opinion, to do something to look at your immediate environment and take an action that improves the lives of those around you.  It is to give some of your money to deserving charities.  It is to give some of your time to helpi...

Bestselling Author  Brene Brown  has a simple formula for understanding the concept of trust. She calls her formula,  BRAVING ; which means B-boundaries, R- reliability, A-accountability V-vault, I-integrity, N-non-judgement, and G-generosity. You can find some explanation on this Braving acronym here I first heard about her formula after listening to her Supersoul session titled  the anatomy of trust.  So let's find out whether you should be trusting that co-worker, friend or spouse, as much as you do. Loading… . Done with the quiz? scroll up to check your scores! What's interesting is that you can always test for as many people as possible. Perfect scores are not required. Although based on this braving formula, the higher you score for someone, the more trusting you should of that particular person. However, even when the scores are low,  they can improve because with the feedback from the questionnaire, you have a basis for di...

  photo credit: Instagram: @opeyemii_ 1.   You have time to self reflect Time for personal reflection is very important. That is, you actively take stock of your goals and decide the next steps to take in order to push yourself forward.  Having time for yourself also means being disciplined about your goals.  2.  You have a positive mental picture of your future. You know you are going to make it in life. At the moment, you may be far away from your goals, but you know it’s going to be OK eventually. Your perception of your future will influence the choices you make in the present.  3. You have the right value system . Honesty, trust, integrity, fairness, kindness, and tolerance are a few of the values you hold with high regard. There is a direct correlation between your value system and the choices you make.  You can’t just say you act with integrity when your actions say otherwise. Again, your choices have to align with your valu...