GROWING UP

Hey, lovely people, welcome to a new month.

Who's excited about September? It will be awesome. We will have more engaging stuff here. And also, in Motivators International, we'd have a couple of things to talk about. Hope you get to join us in any of our Motivators Roundtables in Abuja, Port Harcourt and Lagos to connect with young professionals and also polish yourself unto excellence.


Well, this month, we'd be looking at what it takes to grow up.

Growing up could mean different things to different people, to some it means being able to secure a job and take care of one’s needs, to another, it’s being able to graduate from college and to someone else, it means being able to overcome a certain type of fear. All of this is part of what it means to grow up but there’s really much more. When we were Children, we taught like Children. But when we grow up, we put away childish thinking.

Personally, when I was a child, I used to love milk. I promised myself that once I had enough money to buy milk, I will drink and drink until the heavens draw a little nearer the earth. And because when we were growing up, daddy used to make tea look like swimming pool, nestled in a big jug - where everyone pours out the light liquid with grudges, hoping that daddy will look away so we do the needful by scooping more milk and Bournvita into the transparent liquid - I promised myself a type of tea, thick as emulsion as compensation. But now that I have money enough to buy milk, I have bigger things to bother about.

But growing up also entails disrupting old mentality, bracing up for bigger dreams, stretching and striving for significance. Everyone gets to grow up in some way. And if we fail to realize this, change happens to us, whether we like it or not. People may hurt you at some point in your life, sometimes it's even people you trust. But would you grow up? Would you grow up not to presume too much on people's love because they might do something you'd be sorry for? Would you grow up to know that if your dream has to live, it's up to you? Would you grow up and learn to control your anger? Would you grow up to know that only the bold and daring sip nectar from life's beautiful cross pollination? It's worth it, yes, growing up.

Growing up sometimes means making the move at the stirring of the waters, it means knowing when to go in for a fight and when to stand aside and allow life happen. Growing up is beautiful but sometimes, it comes with letting the scale covering our eyes to fall off and crumble, it means allowing the billowing courage in our hearts to blossom so we can see the Sun rise with a new energy in its wings and whisper to us, 'it's time to grow up.'

Welcome to September.

GRATEFUL HEART

Too many times I am so excited I want to fall out of my seat. Not because I won a jackpot but because I'm alive. It's something to shout about. Words bubble through my heart in moments like this, and pour forth in praise and thanksgiving unto God.

Too many times also, I feel less excited about life, I become burdened by the need to birth dreams and my passion for a world where people are better empowered to achieve their purpose. Many times, yours sincerely, D-Motivator needs motivation. But thank God for the Holy Spirit who helps us with joy enough to draw water out of the well of Salvation.


Truth is, too many people who you think have life all perfectly figured out have their own silent burdens. Stuff they don't bore the social media world with. You may have your own fears too, you may have your worries but the scripture urges us to cast our burdens unto the Lord for he cares for us.

I remember listening to Mark Vujicic, the man without limbs who is making waves and touching people's lives with his life of service and gratefulness unto God despite his disability. According to him, he summed up his life at some point and thought, 'I'm never gonna get married, I'm never gonna have children, I'm never gonna be able to live my dream because of my disability.' But today, all those his fears have melted away, he is married now and his second baby just arrived. Today, his dreams more than fulfilled.





So fear not, be encouraged. God knows the fears of your heart, he loves you more than you can imagine. With him, your disabilities will turn to abilities. Just learn how to be thankful for what you already have and what you are looking for will make a hasty arrival. God knows the way he is taking you through, and after you are tried and tested, you will come out purified, refined as gold.

In all you do today, Be Happy, Be Exceptional, Be You.
Welcome to a new week.
Sincerely yours,
D-Motivator

FAITH

Lovely people, I've been really busy but I can't forget to bring to you the end of this short story titled Faith. To connect better with the story, you might want to read the first one if you have not yet done so. Enjoy.

Part 2
'Make sure you tidy the kitchen before you go to that stream and swim away the whole day.' Mama tells Olanma. 'And you, Emeka, fetch water and fill up the container in the kitchen.' Mama shouts like a Police Corporal, dishes some more orders before leaving for her August meeting. I am sitting at the paIour, watching the seconds hand of the clock run a marathon. I am waiting for Toby to come. We shall finish the game and then go and try to woo Urenna, that girl that speaks from her nose.


When Mama finally leaves, I am lost in thought. 'Faith always delivers to those who believe.' These words are crawling under my skin now. Will my faith help me beat Toby's Barcelona when he comes seeing that I've never beaten him before? Will it deliver Urenna to me and grant me my first kiss ever? Will it allow Papa to buy me a bicycle on my next birthday? I have no faith experience. I think I should first learn to get some white Uri on my finger nails from the cattle egret.

I walk outside through the front door and towards the field. Luckily, I can see the Aboki standing by his cow and the cattle egret supervising their grazing. I lift my hands, stretch out my fingers, my voice gradually loses its shyness,

'Shekele nyem mbo ocha ma were mbo oji...'

There are three things I want beside a white sign on my finger nails; beating Toby's Barcelona, winning Urenna's love and getting a bicycle from Papa on my 14th birthday.

*The End*

FAITH

Olanma, my younger sister, likes waving her hands at the white cattle egret whenever they appear at the break of dawn. She looks on with the vigilant eyes of a night watchman and the helpless courage of a hopeful maid.

She is asking for beautiful patterns on her finger nails. A song perches on her lips, she is bursting with lullaby, sonorous like Ogene Ndigbo,


'Shekeleke nyem mbo ocha ma were mbo Oji.' She repeats this many times.

Her voice radiates the colour of Handel's messiah as she waves her hand up and down. Through the binoculars of faith, she sees them; through the prisms of hope, she anticipates and the white patterns seem to find a way to show up.

Three days later, we are seated on a wooden bench at the backyard, Olanma and I. The wind is whistling through the mango tree not too far from where we are seated. Mama is cooking Ofe Nsala, a kind of soup that possesses super powers . Both of us are caressed by the Ofe Nsala aroma. Olanma is examining her fingernails, a new pattern has appeared. I don't know how. I am thinking of what I would do to Messi in the unfinished Chelsea and Barcelona encounter between Toby and I. Toby is so good with PS2 he will pass for a computer cheat. I will remove Falcoa once the second half resumes, he is a vestigial part of a tree trunk. I conclude. Chelsea is my colour, PS2 is the passion. Football is the game.

The Rainbow has dispersed its colourful pride. The rain has stopped sighing and the Summer holiday is already here. Olanma nudges me. 'What are you thinking of, biting your lips? Can you see the pattern on my nails?'
I do not see anything. I pretend. I am busy dribbling Messi. Olanma is like that, she will not let me rest; 'Brother look nah, don't you like my white nails? Faith always delivers to those who believe. Can you see my nails?' Olanma says. I finally oblige. I examine her nails and see the newly acquired patterns. At ten, Olanma says some things too wonderful for the ears to understand.

'This is Superstitious,' I tell Mama at the dining table. 'Yes, it is Superstition,' mama concurs. 'No, it is faith,' Papa interjects as I imagine a ball of fufu make a hasty arrival down his throat. 'Faith is the evidence of things hoped for, it is..., it is...' He seems to forget some of his lines. Ofe Nsala is working wonders. 'Yes, it's the universe that delivers to you your expectations. Your faith activates the imagination.' Thankfully, he remembers. Papa can be like that, a magnetic field of inspiration, when food is not far-fetched.
(Watch Out for Part 2)

WHAT TIMIDITY WILL DO TO YOU.

 When I decided to learn how to speak in public, I was looking for a great platform, forgetting that there are platforms everywhere.
I did not know where to start from and my first outing had been pretty bad. I had been nominated as an Assistant Secretary in our youth fellowship and I was asked to give the announcement. I could not face our small congregation. Standing in front of everyone, bikemen were rioting in my head. The rioting bikemen in m...y feeble mind spilled the words out of my mouth. I was saying things but I could not hear myself.


To help my flustered confidence, I cracked a joke which refused to settle. Then everyone gave me this what-exactly-are-you-saying kind of look. What else will the righteous do? I began to explain my joke. But nope, I did not finish. Someone scratched his head, another batted an eye brow. I stepped down that podium, fired up that there has to be a better way.

After that encounter, the mirror in our room became a closer companion. I was always practicing, speaking, letting the mirror judge me, becoming the victor, triumphing over the vanquished. I joined the drama group, prayer group, evangelism, anything that would help. I practiced severally and my next assignment was like a stage play delivered with the precision of a well-rehearsed script.

Today I look back on those days when my lips were stuttering, when I would decide to preach in a bus I was traveling in, only to end up looking at trees and electric poles as they sped by. I see how God's grace was released to help my weakness, I see how the courage to speak up has shaped who I am. I am still becoming for according to Jim Conor, life is an unfolding process of becoming.

Many times, we want to achieve something but we don't want to do what the task demands. We want to wish the responsibilities away and embrace the result of the process. But the first task is to start the process. To ask the right questions. When we ask uncommon questions, we get uncommon answers. Yet it will take a measure of boldness to run towards the answers to the asked questions.

Today, much practice in the area of speaking has washed away my timidity. I have not attained the height I want but I am not where I used to be. Timidity rubs people of who they could be. It is the difference between schooled people getting nothing achieved and unschooled people accomplishing so much. Audacity will buy you more in the market place than timidity would give you in a life time.

No matter where you come from, no matter your religion, timidity will rub you of your shine while courage will push you a step further to the life you've always dreamed of. Which would you embrace today?
Timidity or Courage?
Stand Out, Be Exceptional.
Sincerely yours, D-Motivator.

Trusting God.

A song writer, Nicole Mullen wrote an interesting song, part of which says, 'Who taught the Sun where to stand in the morning?
Who told the Ocean you can only come this far?
And who showed the moon where to hide till evening?"
Thinking through on these important questions gives us a peek into the awesomeness of God. The creation proclaims His glory, from the earth hanging on nothing when viewed from outer space, to the ravens feeding fine, from the lilies clothed in beauty to the stars shining in silence at night. The works of God proclaim an immeasurable majesty.
And if He made these great things to be, how much more would he establish those who trust in Him. Life's stages can come with uncertainties, biting financial situation, family challenges, work pressures and many more. All of these may have the capacity to weigh you down. But before life breaks you, remember the one who clothes the lilies, who put the stars in place, who feeds the ravens and know that no one has the right to write you off except you consent. Would you accent that you're worth nothing? Keep daring and reaching for your dreams, if God has done it before, he can do it again. Trust!

No Action, Talk Only(NATO).

It's Monday evening in the quiet city of Abuja. I am rushing home after what looks like a busy day at work. The driver greets me, and tells me the fare. His face is set at angle ninety. He looks like someone to whom laughter is as costly as the fuel in his car. I don't argue. The heavens are grumbling with rain. Delay would be dangerous.

Along the road are flowers of people, and also shrubs, planted by the El-Rufai's FCT administration. There seems to have been no change in the look of the city centre since El-Rufai left.

Adorning the road side are fierce-looking, business-seeking, Jerry-Can-wielding, independent fuel marketers also known as black marketers. They spread out like electric poles, wielding gallons of hope. In front of each of them is their liquid gold with small hoses beside, with which they assist any car that might patronize their merchandise.

I am amused, everything happens in Nigeria. But this evening, my plight is not Nigeria. I am bothered because I am the one involved. How much I talk and how little I do. How much solutions are in my head and how little I bring forth. I want to fall down and wail briefly but I don't. There are goals our Organization can reach that it has not yet attained, an International Conference later in the year, the second edition of our magazine, books in my head that have not been written, the companies in my head that have not been incorporated, the people I am yet to help, our continent that is in need, out planet that is yet in peril. I cannot repair all these things, I agree, but I will have to fulfill purpose.

Lately, there's been lots of work on my table. From books to read to unfinished writing works, from letters to proposals and sundry office assignments. Sometimes it's difficult to stitch it all together. But when we were small, we used to build castles in the air, how to become a citizen of the world, live a little in America, a little in Germany, charge your phone in France, shop in Dubai, wield a passport, sagging with the weight of visa stamps. But growing up has numbed some of these imaginations, both the realistic ones and the unrealistic ones. I am waking them up.

It is true that I have hit some milestones but I find out, the difference between where I am and where I could have been is action, not talk. Even though talk, good, quality, polished talk has its place but the most positive of actions can supersede the most elegant words. Sometimes, we love people but we never say anything to them, we never show it. You want to get a job, yet you fold your hands and wait for the job to just fall. What differentiates the talker from the doer is what the doer does that the talker muses about. With little time, the difference becomes like 7up and coke, shining for the eyes to see.

Later, I wipe my frustration over a plate of Yam and beans prepared with some Orishirishi. This is how we roll. At least, man must wack to see clearly. In a few minutes, the food is working. I am a prophet. I get energy to see things more broadly. I become assured, I am not alone in this. No action, talk only group of people. We are many in Nigeria. Our minds are filled with possibilities that are shut out by realities. Our electricity supply is not constant, because we talk and don't take action, we're sandwiched in a fuel subsidy quagmire but we talk and do nothing.

This is why I am often hard on myself, because what goes around, comes around. This thing seems to be affecting me. For a split moment, I want to run away. I remember, the immigrant crises in the West. I calm myself down. I dey kampe. I open a software application on my laptop, Personal Brain, I begin to plan, strategize, restructure ways of bringing in more productivity and less activity.

I finish and I think about my friends, wonderful people on Facebook, who know all the solutions for Nigeria's problems but can't fix their small enclaves, who wear 'my money grows like grass' but know that the grass has long dried up. I remember those on twitter - who throw tantrums, with stone, weighing 140 characters, at the slightest provocation - living in glittering glass tombs, pretending that talk will solve all our problems. I also remember our President, who said he will make one naira equal to one dollar, who promised to stabilize oil price. Now he said we should have patience. But patience has just left. No action Talk only. Then, I wish myself and everyone well, Ogidichamma, Igobeta.

I repent. I quit the No Action, Talk Only group, as I am also not part of the original North Atlantic Treaty Organization, who sometimes, are plagued by no action, talk only. I know who I am; a concerned citizen of a fast-paced world.

Would you like to be all you were meant to be? Then join me, keep your fears behind you, let's walk the talk, take the step and win the race!
Be Inspired, Be Courageous, Be You.