A heel snaps, and you stay calm under pressure

I laughed my guts out yesterday. I learnt my heart a good lesson too. A friend popped into my office, hilarious and all, to story-tell me that en route from the main gate of University, as she swankily walked across something embarrassing and dangerous happened. As she walked, she noticed a green stilleto fly in front of her with a snapped heel. She was discomforted and felt the heat on the ground at the same nearly landing herself on the ground. "I wondered, now whose show is that," she asked herself as she slowed down feeling some pain in her feet (all in this in split seconds, I imagine). Little did she know her shoe was, today, green and it had snapped the heel and flew right in front of her.

She tells me she was embarrassed. "Then I noticed all sorts of people staring at me, being me, I kept my calm, walked forward and picked my shoe, took out my other pair of flat reliable ones, and off I walked," she said. Being her, I'm sure she continued to walk with the same swankiness and grace le grande not caring what others made of her near-ankle tearing misfortune. When she got to my office to tell the story, she was laughing hilarious.

Lesson for me: Don't take yourself too seriously. Insomany things, just don't take yourself too seriously, that may work against you, it may make it possible for you to hurt whereas if you went light on it, you would laugh at the situation/problem and carry on with the same confidence. There may be pain, embarrassment inside from the failure, but hey, if you stayed calm under pressure and cared less what most people think, you are sure to bounce back equally well or even ten times better and continue to succeed, fail, succeed and succeed even more.

_Email this to a friend by clicking on the 'envelope' below_

Pressure inspires

Us humans are a funny and paradox-filled species. In May I had a tooth op due to some chicken feet bone shrapnel being lodged between the tooth and the gum. The pain was so unbearable hell had no fury. Now the funny part of the human species: in the midst of failing to endure the pain, I made so many promises. No, I made oaths. Countless solemn oaths about what dedication, committment and creativity I'll demonstrate should God only let me go pass that pain - yes, it felt deadly. And then the angels removed the pain - they came in white coats, one looking up my mouth with a drill in hand, the other passing all sorts of sharp needles. Then the months later, I never did all that I said I'd do when I was on my 'death-bed' - it was that bad.

It's true that us humans we do most awesome things under pressure. All sorts of pressure. What with me jumping an awesomely high fence in the village running from fierce dog that I was show intended to murder me. That fence is so high, when I told people I jumped it unscathed, they never believed. Call it adrenal moments. Now, when we're under pressure or at our lowest, we seem to connect far much better with some dormant, silent power from within us. A power that we know or suspect we posses, but never really strive to tap into.

I'm sure you do relate here. The things you've always wanted to say but never said because the was no pressure, be it emotional or otherwise pressure. But just that one time when the situation is so heavy on your heart more than your shoulders, you spit it the way you normally wouldn't.

I asked myself this question today: How would harness that kind of inspiration positively and use it at a time when I choose to constructively? What would happen? Wouldn't I be awesome, great? I got no doubt.

_Email this to a friend by clicking on the 'envelope' below_

The key word in Team is Player

Funny enough I'm at a point in my life where I'm forced to acknowledge a long known truth: things work out amongst people, teams, families, communities and nations because all involved have an active and practical vested interest - they're players in a team. Therefore, all parties involved hold dear the success of the goal and vision of what they either want to achieve or has to be achieved.

However, in most cases, especialy where feuds erupt, all parties involved may see the same vision, all hold dear to their heart that such an enriching destination be achieved, but paradoxically, some amongst the parties/team will not stretch their minds and hearts and sweat enough to make reality such a dream. This means that some people in a team naturally forget that they're in a team as players. Practical players. By virtue of a player being in a team doesn't mean that they are playing.

You find misunderstandings turning into feuds, simple feuds into complex conflicts, conflicts into irrepairable relations - therefore, a chain reaction: more and more conflicts. At the end, none wins, for we have been taught by our fores that sometimes winning in a 'war' is in fact losing more than that which you overpowered with your strength and tactics.

For me, there's no easy-go fastfood type solution to avoiding this disturbance of the peace and harmony which prevents the joy of life from thriving. I say so because as people, we're different, we have different approaches. But at the same time, we're so the same that in many ways that we forget that we share a vision: to live together peacefully with each of us being respected for their ways and personalities.

The danger with too much diversity too, and Kings and Queens would be happy I reiterate this, is that we all, as a team, never really move just in time to arrive at a common decision. Too much democracy kills advancement.

_Email this to a friend by clicking on the 'envelope' below_