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A lot of us are used to setting off with a task at hand and never completing them. We start all out with zeal, taking leaps, and bounds in days and by the end of the week, month or set time, we’ve backslid so far we can’t even see the frontline where we started from.
Note to self: Try to stay on track by, setting reasonable goals and timelines, setting anticipated steps to get to goals, make a plan for drawbacks and strategy to get back on track when and if we do backslide…like I have a thousand times and make yourself accountable.
Learn to forgive yourself when you fall off, pick up lessons on how and why you fell off the wagon and also take into account making time for rest, recuperation, revving your engine and rebounding back. It’s better to be consistent than bursts of starts and stops that get nowhere.
Sometimes, working with a team of others helps to keep us on track, helps to sharpen our skills and also helps to uplift us when we experience a glitch. Consider team building with others as a way of strengthening your base.
Shalom!
Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.
When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.
How do you feel when you stay on course with those thing’s that you set out to do?
Naturally we feel a wholesome satisfaction, elation and motivated.
Good results inspire us to keep striving for repeats while negative results drag us down.
We are imperfect and sometimes we fall short in focusing on those things that are best for us, but the important thing is not to let our focus deplete to such an extent that we have to start anew each time.
Discipline builds and becomes part of one’s character.
©Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.
When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.
Never leave me lonely on these shores
Where no one knows me
Where I stare at strange forms
Trying to find you somewhere there in their midst.
No. (Number) That’s what Linda gave us for today’s Saturday stream of consciousness and I had to remind myself over a no. of times to get up and do it.
Today, I have refused to do a good number of things except lie around and whine in my head. Taking a deep breath after the days almost gone, I haul my butt out to get it done.
It’s not a deliberate attitude not to do anything, except binge on food, but some deep lethargy that seems to have pervaded my mind for the past couple of weeks and this has made everything a drudgery.
I know the symptoms for I have experienced it over thousands of times and so many times when I allow the dragon out of its lair by letting the lethargy fester it never bodes well.
Over the thousand no. of times that I have allowed it take over, it dragged me down into its lair and turns me into a dragon myself. Everything that I am doing would give way for this sniveling, annoying, depressing monster who rears its ugly head when it wills.
It’s a good thing that I always have several bowls of prepared food in the fridge and freezer, so that way, my family don’t suffer on the days that lethargy seizes my bones.
Now that I’ve written, I feel better and can’t help wonder how many times I allowed it to beat me. Can I put a figure to the no. of times it got the better of me? I doubt if I can. However today, it’s not going to get my number anymore. Enough!
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
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The above quote can be likened to an ailing patient who buys all the drugs and keeps them locked in a cupboard for safe-keeping 
Of course, the patient will remain sick.
Change can only come about when it’s applied and not from wishful thinking.
Change is a deliberate decision, backed up with actions that over time and practice becomes a character trait.
Some are afraid of trying for change because of the fear of failure, which is a worse scenario.
It’s better to try and repeat over and over, than to sit in the same situation through a lifetime. What a waste that would be!
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
A lot of times, people spend far too much time dwelling on those places where they took a tumble and failed, that sometimes, they even fail to see the silver lining streaking past their very nose in the dark cloud.
Then there are those who are far too concerned with how others will view and judge them for a short-coming that they deny themselves the opportunity to grow from a lesson that life presented.
It’s for others to spend their energy judging, if they so choose to, that’s not your business what they think.
Your business is to pick up your life, dust your scraped knees and make something beautiful out of a situation that wanted to get the better of you.
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
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Quick motivational fact:
Well, he obviously proved the editor wrong!
That speaks for itself. So, rise and glow. Don’t let one or even several measly rejections keep you down. Your dream is as big as you want it to be.
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
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© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
Starting a new project is akin to venturing on an unknown expedition which is fraught with
excitement, uncertainties, trepidation, breakthroughs and a basketful of other emotions of unknown origins.
Most times, we are hesitant to approach a project that looms in our minds, overthinking the process of that new beginning with all the should I, would I, could I and what if’s under the sun.
Once that overthinking, over-preparing process begins, our zeal starts to wane and that little nay-saying imp hanging around the corridors of progress waiting to say nay at the slightest opportunity, will validate our excuses with all the best laid out reasons and will nip at our heels with glee.
A simple approach which I have found that works before I jump into the fray with two feet, is to ask just two questions with a chart to tick my answers:
– What is the purpose of this project and what do I stand to gain with its success?
weighed against:
– What do I stand to lose if it doesn’t pan out the way I thought it would?
Once these two bits have been sorted out in my head, I dive in wholeheartedly and give it my best shot. Some days along the way might be arduous but I limp along and keep telling myself “hang in there, this too shall pass”.
By the time I know it, time is flying past, I am enjoying the process and recording success to the point that when the end looms in sight I start feeling withdrawal pangs, wondering why I didn’t do this before.
Over the years, with little things that I done here and there, I found that the greatest fault is not failing to succeed in that which one sets off to achieve, rather, it is the failure to attempt in the first place that is the biggest problem.
“To my fellow NaBloPoMoer’s and The NaNoWrimoer’s, just hang in there, this too shall pass!“
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
In response to NaBloPoMo, Tuesday, November 10
What is the hardest part of a big project: getting the energy to begin, finding the time to work on it, or feeling down that it’s over?
Let me tell you something.
You may have heard this a countless times before.
Even so, I still cannot resist telling you just one more time.
Let not your heart fail you; nor your mind deny your strength,
For within you lies courage; just reach deep and it will show forth.
Let me tell you that the measure of your courage;
Is not determined by whether you reach the goal or not;
It is determined by your decision to get back on your feet;
No matter how many times your trials failed!
No one said that it will be easy!
But if you have the courage to remain steadfast;
But if you have the courage to pursue you dreams;
You will give your life its richest rewards;
You will give your life its greatest adventures;
The brightest adventures do not lie on the peaks of mountains!
The brightest adventures lie first within you..
You must be of good courage!
And rise again….even when you have fallen flat on your face!
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
