Being thankful – the ‘Who’
Last week, I wrote about what I am thankful for. I want to conclude this week by covering the ‘Who’. Who am I thankful for?
Like many of you, I am thankful for family, friends and colleagues but there are always people who stand out in our stories.
My Father
The first person who stands out for me is my father. I am thankful that he believed in me and set before me a vision that showed me anything is possible if I’m willing to work for it.
Two of the first books he bought for my brother and I were ‘The Power Of Positive Thinking’ and ‘A Guide To Confident Living’ by Norman Vincent Peale.
I flipped through the pages wondering where the pictures were. I was at an age when all my books were meant to have pictures in them.
Thinking the words were too many, I looked at the titles again. I told myself, it must be important to think positively and to be confident, otherwise daddy wouldn’t have bought ‘the books with no pictures’.
This was the start of my journey into personal development and recognising the responsibility that comes with that.
A wolf in sheep's clothing
I am thankful for a co-tenant when I was a young child for teaching me to listen to my inner voice and trust my intuition. As a young child, I was scared of the dark and always imagined monsters hiding under the beds. I often snuck into bed with my parents. 
One day my parents travelled and left us in the care of a co-tenant who was like family. As I was scared of sleeping alone, I stayed with him. After a while, I felt very uneasy and I just knew I wasn’t safe. I realised I was more scared of being with him than I was of the monsters. So I left.
He taught me the power of my intuition, the importance of listening to my inner voice and recognising when a hand bigger than I understood was delivering me from evil.
My intuition has bailed me out more times than I can count and that protection from above has been my life saver.
My Science Teacher
I am thankful for Mr M.S. Ali who taught me for one year. Until he came to my school, I had believed the lie that I wasn’t cut out for sciences and had no hope of passing them. 
M. S. Ali came, saw that I had the potential to be good in Sciences and he made it his mission to help me.
The most important thing he did was to challenge how I saw myself in relation to those subjects and the mental block I had put up.
Over time, I realised that I could grasp contents that previously seemed like Ancient Greek. In one year, this amazing teacher helped me to turn around my grades.
I have never forgotten the impact he had on my life and the lesson he taught me. He taught me that ‘can’t learn’ was my fear and did not have to be my reality.
Celebrating purpose, ambition and tenacity. Celebrating Christine!
My week has been one of special celebrations, first my son’s graduation followed by a friend’s 50th birthday celebration. This week’s post is inspired by someone who lives and breathes Purpose, Ambition and Tenacity. I have known Bukola Christine Olatunji for almost
Vision – making your dream a reality
I was at a friend’s 50th birthday party last night and ran into other friends. For many years, we were part of a faith-based organisation, met once a month and spent one weekend together every year. Our children were all different ages.
One of my friends shared her vision about getting the children to become friends with the older ones mentoring the younger ones. We created a buddy system, encouraging them to build and leverage these relationships.
This vision turned ‘social experiment’ was about 10 to 15 years ago. Fast forward 15 years, these 'children' are now in or have finished from top universities with excellent career prospects.
As we all know children sometimes listen to their peers more than they do parents. To the delight of the parents these children have helped each other aspire for better results and make some right education and career choices.
The relationship these young people have built over many years has evolved to one of spurring, challenging, coaching, mentoring and encouraging each other.
Our social experiment has produced excellent results and got me thinking of the lessons I’ve learnt from watching them fulfil our vision.
Here are my thoughts:
Have a vision and share it with those who need to be involved
A few of the parents shared their vision on how our children could help each other through a mentoring and support programme. They told a compelling story and other parents bought into it.
What is your vision and who do you need to engage?
Create an enabling environment
As parents who all lived miles apart, we knew the only way our children could develop the relationship was for us to make room for them. Every month, we released them to be with each other and many times, we waited for them even when we were in a hurry. We needed to turn our verbal support into action to help make it happen.
How are you creating an enabling environment for your vision to become a reality?
Get where you want to go
I ended my last post by referring to the quote by Henry David Thoreau that says, "Never look back unless you are planning to go that way."
It is easy to say don’t look back but, some people might ask, ‘what does that mean or what practical steps can I take?’
This quote is a timely reminder at a time when I'm leaving my old career behind to pursue new opportunities. There's a risk that I could be tempted to look back at the familiar especially at those times when fear and self-doubt will inevitably crop up.
This happens to the best of us and I must think now of what to do when that happens. I need a plan now as it will be too late to come up with one if fear and self-doubt has already crept in.
So, here are some tips to help you move in the direction you want to go.
Know the ‘What’ and ‘Why’
Write down the vision and your 'why'. This is critical as if you don’t know where you are going, there’s no way to know when you arrive. At the earliest stage, define what you want to achieve and why it is important. This becomes your motivation.
Create a plan of action Have a plan so you know what to do on a daily and weekly basis. This will be useful on days when you’re not in the mood or don’t feel motivated. If you stick with the scheduled actions and discipline yourself to follow through, you will move in the right direction.