September is usually that time of the year where students of all level return back to school. As this period commences, Talking-B team is ready to kick start with some exciting and juicy pieces. We will work towards spontaneous topics on development and inspiration.
Category: Motivation
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Hold on, be at peace!
Hold on, it’s all about to end
I know you feel tired, I know you are weak
It seems all impossible, you have been told your dreams are too irrealistic
You have been told to think smaller and to be confined to a particular reality
The turn around is now, you are at the edge of a breakthrough
Be still, hold on, it’s almost over.
Song
Slow Down by Imany
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwyDSbdKj9c
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Loss and Pain
The anguish of loss can be devastating, be it in cases of calamities, bereavement, disappearance or even getting laid off a job. Loss is inevitable, we lose people and when that happens, the agony is felt because this is a journey of no return where promises are left unkept, dreams are left unachieved and memories linger on the side of those behind. However, when it happens intentionally, it is even more sorrowful.
Yesterday she said “Mary just died to me “it felt awkward, I didn’t understand what she meant and I asked her. She said “in my world, Mary just died. I no longer consider her a friend, neither do I want to have anything to do with her.” I was dazed, I remembered that just last week, she and Mary were best friends, jolly, loving and adorable.
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The what’s next moment…
What do you do when you don’t know the next step to take, have you come to an end of a crossroad and you are like ‘oops’ what next awaits me?
For students, they generally suffer from what I refer to as Post Graduate Stress disorder (I don’t know if that exists) especially when you are the go-getter, excellent grade, hardworking type of student.
It is a time when one’s identity shifts into something bigger. In fact, it is the point of switching from the regular student life to the work environment and stepping more fully into the adult world. As I mused about this, I realized it also affected so many young people. Through my search, I bumped into the perfect story in Dale Carnegie, How to stop worrying and Start living and it goes as follow:
“In the spring of 1871, a young man picked a book and read twenty-one words that had a profound effect on his future. A medical student at the Montreal General Hospital, he was worried about passing the final examination, worried about what to do, where to gon how to build up a practice, how to make a living.
The twenty-one words helped him to become the most famous physician of his generation. He organized the world famous John Hopkins School of Medicine, he became Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford- the highest honor that can be bestowed upon any medical man in the British Empire. He was knighted by the King Of England. When he died, two huge volumes containing 1446 pages were required to tell the story of his life.
His name was Sir William Osler. Here are the twenty-one words that he read in the spring of 1871- twenty-one words from Thomas Carlyle that helped him lead a life free of worry
” Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand”
So this point here is the euphoria we need, it could be related to almost anything in life. Enjoying every moment of the transition period. Doing perfectly whatever you find at hand, being faithful in the small thing and thereby you are building up the muscles to what lies ahead.
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Get out of your nest and fly
When she turned 18, it was in a foreign country far away from home. Her roommate, Jane(confidentiality clause) was the first person to wish her a happy birthday but followed it with this sentence « It is time to come out of your shell and start living »
As a child, she was quite tall and had an affirmative stature. She was bigger and taller than all her playmates, She didn’t like that at all. She didn’t feel pretty and believed the petite girls were the most beautiful and everyone admired them. She was a shy kid and always wanted to hide. You know those type of students who will never talk in class or give their opinion, she wanted to disappear and be alone.
Nevertheless, as she grew up she grew out of her nest and learnt to fly, but she soon realized that almost everyone she knew lived with a particular insecurity about themselves
« If only my butt can be smaller, I have a big nose, My boobs are too big, I am too fat, If only I could gain 10 kilos and have more flesh then my life will be better, I am too dark and people laugh at me, I turn red when I speak and I always hate myself, I have sweaty palms and people are scared of coming close to me, I am short so I have to dress to impress in order to get noticed. »
The truth is that we let people say so many kinds of stuff to us because they are things we also believed to be true about ourselves. For her, she kept them in her heart, she remembered them on her bed, her pillow was always soaked in her tears, her heart was often broken at the end of each day, yes she let it and you too, you are letting them.
But then, She had to focus on something else, it was her studies, it was the perfect rebound of all negativity. She was reading and all she wanted was succeed, but this didn’t take the lack of self-confidence away.
Her miracle started when she began to know herself, she started writing all she thought to God and this changed her life. It made her have a good relationship with herself, her pains, her thoughts, her strengths, her weakness was inscribed in that book where she wrote to the Almighty. She even wrote about those that hurt her. She gradually learnt to appreciate her person and her morphology, to forgive those that called her names and most importantly she gained her inner strength and confidence. She keened on to the word that she is wonderfully and carefully made.
In life, we cannot all be the same, we are unique and all have our areas of greater capabilities. You are a masterpiece when you believe in yourself, others will see it and respect you. Confidence is not just an aspiration, it should be a way of life. At some point, we all have to get out of our shell and fly because we spend the most time with ourselves and therefore we cannot run away, decide to build yourself up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkvGTht2xTY
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When you rise, the whole world rises with you
And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” ― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
You are on your couch right now, thinking about how much of a disappointment you have been. You have not been able to do something phenomenal with your life, it seems existence is nothing but a joke. You wonder how the others have been able to get that silicon valley job and you still haven’t even got an interview to be an assistant. Still, you have so many choices, you could decide to sit there and wallow in self-pity and pain or you could decide to get up. The former is easier said than done.
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The shaky teary old Lady
At the train station, the boys walked by swiftly and then, I saw shaky teary old lady….
Life has a basic trajectory which it follows toiling in a continuous transition of personalities regardless of gender. Life is generally accepted to be in stages in relation to age and status. It can almost be assumed that all parents envisage or look forward to, being a grandparent someday as it is a blessing and enormous achievement for many. The presence of a new life has a way of changing even a stronghold of enmity within a family, diffuse heated situations, soften enraged hearts and enhances unity.
A newborn is a miracle that never wears out, neither can one get used to it without being a victim of its ever positive effect in the normal cycle of life. It evolves into a new phase when the birth is in the second generation. Grandparents grow soft on all sides upon the birth of their grandchildren. They get more tolerant and accommodating, more open-minded and forgiving, more selfless and hospitable.
Unfortunately, life is quite complex and has its way of frustrating our existence. Some teenagers can’t even tolerate or stand their old one capitalizing on flimsy excuses ranging from being old school, talking out of context, to being ugly, walking feebly, and even a general assumption of being evil.
Where did we miss it? What went wrong? Is our society sowing seeds of contempt? Is civilization a tool against the old folks? Hostility to a grandparent is not just inhuman, it is mental torture, domestic violence that needs swift action.
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A dose of motivation: Ep 1 Sequoia
As I was observing my early morning walk, I heard a particular Hillsong music come up on my playlist. It was sent to me by a very good friend and I had it saved for almost a year, she also explained the nature of the Sequoia.
So I took time out to read a bit about sequoia trees, they are sometimes referred to as giant redwood. These trees are characterized as the largest trees in the world and can live up to 3200 years or more, relatively more than any living organisms on earth, they can reach a height of 94m almost as tall as the Statue of Liberty in New York, United States.
These are special species and they don’t grow everywhere as they are mostly seen in some parts of California. It can take over 20 years for a sequoia tree to regenerate which it does only once in their lifetime. Reading through on the Sequoia Tree, I later discovered they never stop growing until the day they die, so each day and each season is represented by a different type of growth either slow or rapid. It takes pride in itself, understands its identity and enjoys its lifespan through patience. Today, the Sequoia Giant trees are preserved and protected as they are only seen naturally in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
In daily life, we go through seasons and our lives are characterized by different moments, sometimes they are good, other times bad. Self-awareness is a strong key in keeping the mind going, we are all passing through the seasons and we must never compare our growth with others. Can you imagine what would have been of the sequoia tree if it tries to compares itself to the Bamboo tree? In your daily life, what keeps you going, how do you go through the seasons?