Tag: life lessons

Posted in Life, Salient Thoughts

You’re Doing Your Best. Relax.

Posted on by Joel

Lately, I’ve been working hard on myself.

Since late last year, I developed the habit of pushing past my limits, both physically and mentally.

I started working on my body, running miles till I feel my lungs would collapse but going further anyway, working out till my muscles are all strained and feeling messed up, yet I still push myself up.

I also pushed through my mental limits. I began to read outside my domain of comfort. Subjects that require deep thinking and concentration.

I started asking tough questions that have kept me and a while lot of other people boxed up for so long because we are scared to challenge some set powers.

Continue reading “You’re Doing Your Best. Relax.” →

Posted in Life

18 Life-Changing Lessons I Learnt In 2017

Posted on by Joel

Just 3 more days to go in 2017. And then another journey of 365 days.

This made me think back on the last 361 days of my life– like, really think back. And the conclusion is that 2017 has been an amazing year.

This past year, I’ve done things I’d never tried before–both good and bad. I’ve pushed myself past the limits I’d been too lazy to push past before. I’ve arguably learnt far more in the past 360 days as regards my personal development than I’ve learn in the past 22 years of my life.

Yes. I know how that sounds. But really, 2017 has been a great year. The best part is that it didn’t take me the whole 361 days to learn the most crucial lessons I learnt. In fact, most of the progress I made happened within the last 100 days. Which means the lessons are not necessarily difficult to come by or to learn, but more about availability and willingness to learn.

Below is a summary of the most important lessons I’ve learnt this year that you can also pick one or two from.

Continue reading “18 Life-Changing Lessons I Learnt In 2017” →

Posted in Life, Salient Thoughts

The Firm Foundation Your Life Needs

Posted on by Joel

Sometimes it will look like nothing is working out in your favour. Sometimes it will feel like the universe is conspiring against you and luck has turned its back on you. Sometimes the feeling of helplessness may become so overwhelming that you are forced to consider lowering your standard.
If you’ve ever felt like that, you are not alone. It is a natural feeling in times of distress.
But there is something that serves like a support system in this trying times that everyone needs to have, and it’s none other than the good foundations provided by correct principles.

Principles are the foundation of anyone’s character. The kinds of principles your life is based on determines the kind of person you are. It also determines the kinds of virtue and skills that can be built on it, virtues that are compatible with the principles. Continue reading “The Firm Foundation Your Life Needs” →

Posted in Life, Salient Thoughts

The Paradox of Our Uniqueness

Posted on by Joel

Sometimes I feel like life is a game put together by supernatural forces and all they do to us is just for their amusement or a mere show of power. But even at that, it still feels like their twisted sense of humour gave us something good to help us cope.

When I observe people, their ways, their likes, their wants and interests, I can’t help but wonder if all is just an intricate web designed to make a person unique. You would never find someone who has something unique to them alone in the whole world, however when you check the combination of the similarities in random orders, it makes a person unique.

But this is what begs the question of ‘nature versus nurture’ in psychology. Are we the product of our biochemical make up or of our environment and things we were exposed to growing up, and every day?

The focus for now however is on the similarities in our uniqueness. What that means in simple term is this:

Continue reading “The Paradox of Our Uniqueness” →

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Posted in Life

Understanding Challenges

Posted on by Joel

“There is an old Celtic legend that says, just before each person is born, they are allowed to choose every hardship that they would experience during their lifetime. In this tradition, everyone selects the challenges that they would be able to overcome, the situations and conditions that would push them to learn and grow but that would not defeat them.”

I came across this in a guided meditation on Surrender: Letting Go by Jason Stephenson, and it made me realise that most of us had been going about challenges all wrong.

Most times when the word ‘challenge’ comes up, it almost automatically associates with words like deterrent, hindrances or insurmountable, in our mind. But really, a challenge is a demanding or stimulating situation. A challenge is meant to test us and see if we are fit for promotion. It is meant to ‘stimulate’ us for the sole purpose of growth.

Continue reading “Understanding Challenges” →

Posted in Life

The Power of ‘Proactivity’

Posted on by Joel

Life deals us a variety of cards on a daily basis.
Some are in line with what our goal in life is and others seem to push us off our path and we have to fight or struggle to get back on our path.

But there is an interesting question to consider: is it possible to control if we are pushed off our path or not?

There are two things we have to consider, and they are:

  • What it means to be reactive, and
  • what it means to be proactive.

Continue reading “The Power of ‘Proactivity’” →

Posted in Life

The Need for Paradigm-Shifting in a World of Diversity

Posted on by Joel

It is natural to meet or listen to people we don’t agree with or share their point of view. In fact, it is part of being human, to be able to think in a way that is not necessarily general. But there are certain people that seem to think in ways that you can’t just understand what is going on in their head.

During NYSC I encountered a guy by chance. A young lady was trying to sell some beautiful bead necklaces she had made to my friend, but this guy came from no where and said something like, “this is a waste of time, can you get rich doing this kind of trade? blah blah blah…” and some other things that sounds worse than my paraphrasing. People around him–myself and my friend included–just stared at him, no one could think of an appropriate response to give him. So he walked away.

I have to admit, a lot of responses came to my mind and some of them were not nice at all.
Thinking back to that encounter and many other similar ones prompted the question, “what do I do with people that have a different POV and I don’t naturally agree with? Continue reading “The Need for Paradigm-Shifting in a World of Diversity” →