“Aniekan, say it after me, you are…” Can you guess what my partner and cool friend, Moradeke asked me to repeat after her? No? Stick around and I’ll tell you. 2019 is starting somehow. America looks like it’s going to implode, China is not doing so well, Nigeria is dragging her feet because of the forthcoming elections and the citizens are aiding excuse mediocrity and corruption(both financial and power-wise). I’m still trying to build emall.ng(sign up here https://www.emall.ng/user-signup) so don’t worry, I’m optimistic. In fact, I think I am more optimistic today than I was yesterday.
Talking of optimism, I believe you can measure how optimistic about an outcome by the amount of effort you put into it. You know how much a person wants and hopes to get anything by how much effort they put into getting it, not how many times they wish for it. After all, faith without work is dead.
I have spent the better part of the last two years convincing myself that I don’t need validation from any human or world-imposed standard. I got so used to being self-validated that I saw people who yearned for external validation as desperate and in need of self-esteem and purpose. I believe that if you find or discover your purpose, gradually you will see the uniqueness and importance of your flaws, gifts and dreams. But I’m not here to tell you about purpose, I want to tell you how I defaulted and asked for validation. Around noon yesterday, I asked a friend to take a picture of me. I rarely take pictures but whenever I do, they always come out good and yesterday’s shot was no exception.
But having a good picture is not enough for the gram, you need a fire, relatable or engaging caption to go along. Now, coming up with captions have always been easy for me, stringing words that can deliver deeper meanings is kind of like my strong suit. What is your strong suit? Have you been using it?
Anyway, the caption was “The eyes indicate the antiquity of the soul. Look into my eyes, what do you see?”. Ordinarily, I wasn’t expecting replies because I felt the question was rhetorical and people would only admire my charming, quiet, “Romeo-like” eyes and move on to more important things but…a short while after posting the picture, I got some replies like greatness, responsibleness, money, me, you etc. But none of that spoke to me because I have been hugely critical of myself in the last three or four weeks. Don’t ask me why because I don’t know.
Anyway, as the day wounded up with my answered question, I met up with my partner and cool friend, Moradeke and after talking about a lot of things we got to the end of our hang out to the end of our hang out yesterday, Moradeke asked me what’s up and convinced me to share more. And so I opened up.
When I say I opened up, I mean I told her most of the things I tell myself and a few words in, she stopped me and did what she always does, remind me that I am human and that I still have a lot to be proud of. She told me about the some of the feats I achieved in 2018 that I failed to acknowledge. I’m usually the strong one, the motivator, the cool-headed and discerning one but last night, I caved and let the doubts come out. Before saying goodnight, Moradeke said to me “My name, repeat after me. I am a king and I am a part of the 1%. I am intelligent and I have what it takes”. Now, praising myself is something I am learning so I smiled as I enjoyed the boost. But she wouldn’t have any of that and so she said: “I mean it Aniekan, say it after me”. This time with a bit more aggression and so I obliged. I left the hang out with so much joy and it was like my optimism jar had been refilled.
Four things you need to take from this story.
1) You are intelligent and you have what it takes.
2) Surround yourself with people that are yearning for something.
3) You are human. Make room for growth.
4) You can contact me to caption your pictures for your business development, marketing planning and copywriting projects😏.
Did you learn any other thing from my story, please share in the comments section.
