Category: Life

Gratitude Journal: 2021, Part 1

It just clocked in my mind this morning that within the last 4 months I’ve written copy for 2 projects that have grossed close to 1 million Naira each.

That’s over $4,000.

One of them with ZERO ad spend.

Yes, you heard me, ZERO.

I know it might not be much. I know 😁

But one of the guys in I & my partner’s E-Commerce Mastermind group sent me a message that he did 700k last month.

Then he told me he’d been doing Affiliate Marketing since November and hadn’t made a single sale yet.

Shared a couple of ideas with him, and within a couple of hours, he made his first sale.

Lol, see how happy he was πŸ˜†

And that’s aside people in my small community that I’ve taught things that helped them increase their income.

Some of them made their first dollar online.

All these within the last 4 months.

I’m not trying to brag.

But around this same time 3 years ago I was a broke and frustrated Engineering graduate working at a Bet9ja shop on a 10k/month salary and struggling to make ends meet.

Then I quit & started teaching Spanish.

And now I’m in sales and marketing.

Lol, it’s been a crazy journey so far, crazy, crazy, crazy!

But I’m glad I listened to my first Spanish client, Tope Sanni who told me to get a job in sales and marketing.

I’m forever grateful for the opportunity πŸ™ŒπŸΏ

I’m also glad I listened to my instincts and turned down that bank job in 2019.

I’m also forever grateful to Toyin Omotoso for taking a chance on me when he didn’t have to πŸ™ŒπŸΏ

He sent out a glowing recommendation of me to his list last week.

Could never ask for a better mentor.

Thanks to Godwin Woha, the first ever mentor I had.

He read a questionnaire I filled, told me I waxed lyrical and advised I take my writing seriously.

Thanks to HillCity too for the opportunity to meet him asides other opportunities.

Thanks to my partner in crime too Emmanuel Adiotu.

Thanks for pushing me, man πŸ™ŒπŸΏ

I almost forgot Duolingo. Lol.

I haven’t even been practising my Spanish for a long time now.

But I’m dedicating at least 15 minutes every day for the rest of the year.

Because they helped unlock most of these opportunities I have today.

I have no idea why I’m up this morning counting my blessings.

But maybe it’s because today is the last day of the first half of this year.

And 2021 has been so good to me so far.

Thanks to God mehnnn.

Let’s do more for the rest of the year.

Death Or Insanity?

A society is gauged by how they treat their mentally unstable.

I once wrote this down somewhere in my notes and didn’t even think much about it at the time.

After all, thoughts would always be thoughts.

Well, today, I met a clean cut, handsome, smiling 66yr-old with dementia.

I didn’t even figure it out initially as I was caught up with how impressionable and overly affectionate he was with a neighborhood kid.

When it hit me, my face was like one of Martin Scorsese’s freeze frames.

Jaw drops. Click!

Memories came flooding back.

I tried to think of the exact minute you go from being all rational and logical to spewing incoherent and meaningless stuff.

The exact moment it clicks shut in your mind, and then you begin saying nonsense.

The exact moment your mind is broken.

And then, the forced smiles, yimus, snickers, and managed tolerance from people around you.

The loss of dignity. The shame. You go from being respected to becoming a mad man.

In a very superstitious community like ours, your case takes on a spiritual undertone immediately.

“A mad man is never ashamed, only his family members are” – Igbo proverb

Why then would his family let him go about like this?

But then, there’s only so much caregivers can give and take.

People get tired.

Patience has an elastic limit.

People have their own lives to live, build and manage, and not let it peter out by being tasked with the burden of taking care of a family member, a mentally unstable one at that.

What about his country/community?

Which begs the question, aside ostracization, what does Nigeria do for its mentally ill?

Kesh just told me “They don reason us wey well finish before they start to reason craze people? Baba, you go wait tire o“

In saner climes, mentally ill people are provided with robust options; quality health care system, accessible medication.

And so many of them even get to enjoy life, doing almost everything others get to do including getting an education and raising a family.

And though I have never been to a mental health institution in Nigeria, you just have to visit our prisons to understand what it means to be institutionalized in a country like this.

This is not one of those ‘everything wrong with Nigeria’ posts, rather it’s a reaffirmation of the maxim ‘Enjoy the life you’ve been given‘.

We could all die any day, worse is we could lose our minds any day.

And with a country as ours, we are always minutes away. Love yourz.

When we talk about the uncertainty of life, we almost always think of death.

I once got down from a bus at Marina, walked about ten steps, tried to shift for an aged woman walking beside me so she wouldn’t get hit by an oncoming vehicle and boom!!! I smashed the side mirror of a danfo parked on the side of the road to bits.

I had just the transport fare to where I was going on me, so when the conversation switched to “Bros, how we go do am naa?“, hard guy for start to dey cry sef. πŸ˜‚

I thought about every decision I made prior to alighting from the bus when I did.

“See me wey suppose stop on top bridge. Heiii God!!! πŸ˜‚ Which kind calamity be this?”

And then it hit me, someone once said that’s how the afterlife is/would be.

The one time you get to question every single decision you’ve made throughout your life.

That is if you refuse to live introspectively.

So do we wait until we die before asking questions of ourselves?

Funny thing is, death doesn’t even scare me.

However, yut you see dementia? Chills my bone marrow.

It Always Gets Better

Every day, I have to continually remind myself that prosperity is a process, not an event.

And that’s because of the phenomenon of the snowball effect.

The snowball effect is used to describe how a small ball of snow at the top of a snow-covered peak grows in size as it rolls downhill.

It becomes so big that sometimes it’s 20, 50, 100, and even thousands of times bigger than the initial ball of snow.

This is how most growth in life is.

An example of a snowball effect that happened to me recently was in February.

So, in February, I decided to write every day.

Not just write every day, but write and also publish.

So, I wasn’t just taking notes and jots, but I was also editing, proofreading, writing and rewriting.

Think blog posts, articles, tweets and whatnot.

And the thing about writing every day is having to read every day + sometimes for hours on end.

The downside of all this was I fell sick.

But the upside was I made the most money I’d ever made at a single point the next month.

That single push in February snowballed into me taking more risks going forward.

The reason I’m sharing this is just to tell someone out there that growth isn’t linear.

And that sometimes it feels like you’re not even growing at all.

For someone like me who’s obsessed with constant growth, it can even be depressing when you hit a plateau.

The key is just to pick yourself up, dust yourself and keep going.

If it means you need to slow down, then please do.

The bamboo takes around 10 years to grow, but once it does it just keeps growing like it’s on steroids.

So, wherever you are right now, just keep going.

It gets better.

This Is What Dreams Are Made Of

Was in Ibadan over the weekend, my second time in almost 2 years since I left there.

We had an event to attend, so we had to drive past NTA and memories came flooding back.

You see, 2 years ago I was on one of the sets for my friend Juli-Ann Agorye’s show talking about digital marketing.

The show was so good I was invited back more than once.

But what’s funny was that before getting on that show I didn’t even know anything about digital marketing.

What’s even funnier is that most of the stuff I eventually talked about on the show was what I pinched from reading tweets from @ronaldnzimora, @toyinomotoso and @akinalabi.

2 years ago I was on my khaki trekking from Sango to Agodi on Thursdays.

And I had no idea where my life was headed.

2 years later, I work directly or indirectly with some of the guys whose tweets I used to front.

I also have a small community where I teach digital marketing with a few other guys.

I have a thriving blog where I write regularly about sales and marketing.

I’ve collaborated with and will still collaborate with these guys killing it out here in direct response.

Pure stuff of dreams.

And I swear, I’m not trying to motivate any of you.

I just wanted to let you know that it’s okay if you’re uncertain about what next to do with your life or you have no idea how to go about it.

It’s okay to be confused.

It’s okay to not know where next your life is headed.

I was in this same place 2 years ago and thank God for NYSC (the one reason why I’m sentimental about it).

I used that entire year to just read lots and lots of books, meet people, make friends, get my shit together, and figure my life out.

You might not have the luxury of an entire year but it’s okay to just go slow while you try your hands at different things to know what works for you.

Like I said before I’m not trying to motivate you, I guess I’ve just been lucky enough to get here.

But I just hope this helps you.

– Uche

PS: If you are interested in learning more about my journey into digital marketing, you can read up on it here.

https://www.ucheokoro.live/2021/02/18/19-things-i-learned-from-working-with-toyin-omotoso-in-2020/

A Business Lesson From That Night In Porto.

If there’s one money lesson I’ve learned, but I had to be reminded of again from Chelsea winning the Champions League it is to by all means avoid sunk cost fallacy.

Sunk cost is the misconception that you need to pump more money or time into a bad investment and ‘force’ it to become profitable, or else all the time and money you already invested would have been for nothing.

People spend more time at a job that doesn’t fulfil them because they feel if they put in more time then it’d get better.

People stay in a relationship that drains them hoping their partners will change if they could just show them a little more love.

It’s a fallacy!

In reality, you end up wasting the new investment as well. No upside.

“There are two important rules of business, knowing when to get in and when to get out. Of the two, knowing when to get out is the most important.” – Hymie Levy (The Power Of One)

I’m a stickler for determination and holding on, but whether in a relationship or business, sometimes it’s better to end it. At least for your mental health.

Not everything will work even with consistency.

Sometimes an idea might not be saleable or the market might not like or want your product or it can’t just work.

What many people do is they try to force it into working because they’ve either spent too much time or money on it.

But that’s hustling backwards.

I understand the motivational industry tells you to keep trying. But sometimes the best solution is to walk away & cut your losses.

Sometimes, the best solution is to pivot, re-strategize and come back from a different angle.

We have so many companies, musicians, artists who started with a particular product idea or concept & when it wasn’t working they had to go back to the drawing board & rebrand.

Or sometimes even change direction entirely.

There’s no shame in that.

You don’t have money & time to waste.

You shouldn’t be flogging a dead horse.

This is what Roman Abramovich proved when he sacked Frank Lampard despite his status as a club legend and replaced him with Thomas Tuchel.

Business and sentiments are like oil and water, they don’t mix well.

Know this and know peace.

Mr Laz: A Biafra Story

A lot is going on in the world right now, and I’m rife with emotions this morning.

Chelsea won the Champions League last night.

But today is #BiafraRemembranceDay

At this moment, I don’t know if I should talk about my father who was born in the middle of the war.

Or I should talk about the constant persecution of the Igbos.

Or I should talk about the time when I was in Primary 3 when Igbos in Ikom, Cross River State were attacked, people maimed, their shops burnt, goods destroyed, families separated, people killed, lives never to be the same again.

This happens all over Nigeria every year.

But today, I’ll talk about Mr Laz.

In 2016, I was an intern at VON in Abuja when I met Mr Laz.

I was living with a relative who attended the same church as him. He came for oil prospecting and we all stayed in the same house for months.

I keep a lot of notebooks, jotters and diaries where I write about a lot of random stuff I’m thinking about.

Even my mother insists on taking jotters as souvenirs when she attends weddings, just so she can give them to me. Lol

Mr Laz was probably bored one day, and he started reading some of them.

I have no idea why.

I come back home from work one day and he tells me he has been reading some of my stories. I’m so embarrassed!!!! πŸ˜†

But then he starts lavishing me with compliments and telling me they are quite good, and he had no idea I had an artistic side. I start blushing ☺️

Over time, we bonded over stories and then one day he tells me a story about his childhood. A story about Biafra.

Mr Laz was born in the North (can’t remember the exact state). But he told me he was a child, say between 5 and 7 when the war broke out.

His mother was able to smuggle them out and they managed to get on a train headed to Igboland.

They thought they were safe and everything was behind them as they arrived Benue.

Benue is in the Middle Belt, and those who travel to the North from the Southern part of Nigeria know it’s a gateway to Enugu and Cross River.

But what they saw at Benue was unbelievable!

People were lying in wait killing every male that stepped out of any train coming from the North.

Imagine escaping the North and reaching Benue, only to be hacked to death. I mean, you can smell the okpa they sell at Enugu from Makurdi.

You could smell your home, but you’d never reach there. Onwu ejituogi n’uzo.

So, how did Mr Laz survive?

His mother had to dress him up like a girl.

Oh, it was easy.

Mr Laz is a very handsome man. You can only imagine how he looked like a child.

Add a dress, eyeliner and scarf, and you have a beautiful girl.

They hacked down every male – old or young.

Who knows, they might have found him out if some Biafran soldiers who heard about what was going on didn’t pull up at Benue with automatic weapons and dispelled the murderers.

That was the only way the rest of the Igbos running from the North could pass into Igboland.

Imagine a child living through these horror stories and having to remember and retell them every time?

They’ll tell you it was a civil war, but don’t let anyone fool you.

What they did to the Igbos was a GENOCIDE!!!

They didn’t kill you because you were successful or domineering or diligent or hardworking or an overcomer.

They killed you because you were IGBO.

They killed you because an Igbo is all of the above and more.

And even though I have certain reservations about the current state of the Biafra Movement, I choose to know my story.

Know your story too.

Because one day we’ll all tell our stories.

Maybe yours truly might even make a movie.

#Ozoemena But until then… #Echezona

PS: Who knows, maybe my father or Mr Laz might have been one of the children in this picture.

“Until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter.” – Chinua Achebe (Things Fall Apart)

Why You Should Sleep

I just discovered why I’ve been falling sick repeatedly for the past year, spent hundreds of thousands in hospital bills and eye care, almost overdosed on sleeping pills, lost my sight a few times, and nearly went insane.

So, in 2020, I got an offer to work in one of the top five Nigerian banks.

I worked for just one day, and then I left.

Now, I had a major reason for turning down that job offer (which I’ll share with you guys someday).

But one of the reasons why I said no was because I felt working at the bank would hamper my personal development.

During my NYSC in 2018/19, I had developed a routine that helped me read for at least 2 hours every day while writing a bit on the side.

I read over 60 books within 9 months or thereabouts as reading was what I used to fill up the day.

I moved to Lagos after NYSC to teach Spanish and I pretty much kept the same routine.

It was easy for me because I was teaching Spanish for just 2 or 3 hours a day, 2 or 3x a week.

I just needed to wake up early in the morning, exercise, eat, and then read before going to my classes.

And then the bank job came around October.

It was an offer to work for one of their branches in Victoria Island.

It was HUGE as I’d gone through rounds and rounds of interviews and performance-based tests for months.

This was the finish line.

But a part of me felt somehow.

I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about the job anymore, and I had no idea why.

After everything, banking school training and all that, the onboarding session was supposed to last for a week.

On my way home after day 1, I called my mother to tell her I wasn’t doing it anymore.

I lived around Mile 2 at the time & working in Victoria Island meant I had to leave home by at least 5 every morning or get stuck in traffic.

Bank closing time was 5 pm, but then we still had to service customers who were still inside and this could take up to 2 or 3 hours depending on the size of the crowd.

Then we’ll have to wait for the cashiers to balance their accounts and then the vault locked up.

Then I would get into Lagos traffic, and start making my way home.

Give or take I got home between 11 pm and 12 am.

Then I would have to wake up by 3 am to be able to read, exercise, eat, and then leave home by 5. Every day.

It was a perpetual treadmill.

One I had to run on for the next couple of years.

I tried to look at my life for the next two years ahead and it didn’t look like I’d be getting anywhere fast.

I’d just moved to Lagos, and I wasn’t making a lot of money yet so getting a house on the Island wasn’t possible.

So, I quit.

Fast forward to 2020, I got a job offer that was more suited to my skills, flexible, better work environment, and with a higher ceiling.

Since I was coming from the Mainland and traffic is terrible, part of the offer was coming in for 2 or 3 days a week and working from home on the others.

But less than a month later, I fell out with the friends I was squatting with and had to move out.

Moved to a place on the Island about 20 minutes drive from work.

But then moving to the Island meant I started working every day and I loved it.

I was waking up at 3 am to pray, read for 2 hours, write for an hour, exercise, eat, nap for a bit and still get to work before 9 am.

Close at 5 p.m. & still get home before 8 no matter how bad traffic was.

I was growing like crazy.

But then COVID struck!

It meant I could still do my routine without any problems.

But the downside was I had too much free time since we were all indoors.

To fill up this free time, I turned to books & sales copies.

But there’s only so much we can do in total isolation and over time I started filling my free time with sleep.

Sleeping during the day meant I wasn’t falling asleep easily at night.

So, even if my body was tired and screaming for me to sleep, I couldn’t sleep for long because I’d been primed to waking up by 3 every day.

I started having headaches regularly.

I chalked it up to the blue light from my laptop and got antiglare glasses to protect my eyes.

One night, I was working when I stopped seeing anything for almost 2 minutes.

And that’s how my monthly journeys to the hospital started.

I couldn’t sleep.

I was a walking zombie.

Went to an eye clinic for a checkup and was recommended glasses.

Stopped working heavily.

Stopped reading for long too.

But my sleeping problems didn’t stop.

I kept getting admitted into the hospital, and drugs and supplements kept draining holes in my pocket.

I even got prescribed sleeping pills and nothing worked.

Not being able to read and do research as I used to meant I fell off so badly at work.

I had to skip work, I missed project deadlines, lost much of my creativity and practically went from flying at 100 to zero.

It affected my writing output too.

I had to stop exercising too because my body couldn’t keep up.

My eyes would be aching, my teeth chattering, and I’d feel so weak.

Then I would get some relief and then it would start all over again.

This has been my story for the last year.

I just moved to a new place closer to work late last month.

And then this week, my eyes start hurting again.

In my head, I say “here we go again”😁😁😁

But then I decided to try something new for the last two days.

I decided to start sleeping latest 10 PM.

And brethren, I just discovered the reason I’ve been feeling this way was that my sleep pattern had been disrupted for over a year.

The result was I started getting up at exactly 3 or 4 am, pray, read, exercise, do a little bit of work at home before getting to the office.

The only downside is I feel a little sleepy during the day.

But I’ve been doing some of my best work this last week. I can’t even lie.

Dan Go put out a tweet once saying a tiny majority of people can get by with less than four hours of sleep, but most people need at least 6 hours of sleep to function properly.

I think I’m most people 😁

So, the goal now is to shift my bedtime to 8/9 pm and waking hours at 3/4 am.

Waking up at that time when the rest of the world is still asleep means I get to start my day in turbo mode.

That’s when I function best.

So, unless I’m out partying, hanging out with friends, on an online webinar or having sex, I have no reason to be awake past 9 pm.

That’s the reason why I’m putting out this tweet by this time.

I’m about to sleep 😁

See you all in the morning.

6 Things To Do Before You Reach For Your Phone Every Morning.

Just like you, the first thing I do most mornings when I wake up is to grab my phone. I mean, who doesn’t?

I open WhatsApp and start viewing people’s statuses or go on Twitter and just scroll mindlessly.

I wish I wouldn’t sometimes, but it’s almost a habit. And then at the end of the day, I end up doing less than I intended to.

So, in trying to get more out of my day I decided to try a few things and since they’ve been working for me so far, I decided to share them with you.

1. Say Thank You

It’s easy to forget you once prayed or wished for the things you have now.

So, while striving for more, don’t forget to be grateful for waking up today. As a new day is always a brand new opportunity to get everything you missed yesterday.

Don’t also forget to be grateful for your family, friends, and loved ones.

Be grateful for growth opportunities.

Be grateful for people who continually believe in and invest in you.

Be grateful for the hard lessons. At least, there were opportunities to learn something.

And it doesn’t even matter if you’re an atheist because gratitude has no religion. It’s simply therapy for the soul – the single master key that unlocks everything.

2. Drink water

Your body needs about a gallon of water (around 3.7 litres) daily to function optimally.

Drinking water immediately you wake up helps release toxins from your body, aids bowel movement and boosts your appetite.

I also hear drinking water and minding your business helps you look younger and live longer 😁

So, if you’re going to be drinking 1 gallon of water every day, starting with a good litre in the morning is the best way possible to kick off your day.

1 litre of water is just 2 sachets or two small 50cl bottles. Easy peasy!

3. Read

Reading is an opportunity to go into someone else’s mind and then getting to reimagine things from there.

It helps you develop perspective, widens your horizon and gives you much-needed nuance on varying topics.

Imagine being the guy/girl at the party who everyone wants to talk to because you have an idea about almost everything. That’s your superpower, Hero!

1 page. 1 chapter. 1 line of thought. Nothing is too small.

4. Write

This is an opportunity to clarify your thoughts. An opportunity to brainstorm ideas and work on plans/projects you’ve been thinking about too.

And shockingly there’s no limit to what you can write about. One of the world’s best-known books, The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank was written by a 13-year-old.

It was simply a collection of thoughts from her diary.

5. Meditate

There’s a Bible passage which says deep calleth unto deep.

To move from a level of life to somewhere higher would require a lot of meditation and deep, clear and focused thinking.

As much as this is the hardest thing to do especially in a world filled with so much noise and distraction, you need to learn how to still your mind to achieve this kind of deep and clear focus.

Your future will be glad you did.

6. Exercise

I hard to leave the hardest part for last. I know 😁

At a beginner level, you can make do with:

5-10 pushups.

5-10 situps.

5-10 pullups.

5-10 jumping jacks.

Walking distances where you’d naturally use other options. And none of these requires a gym or workout equipment. Only determination and a will to live well.

What’s funny is that doing all of this will take just between 20 minutes to 1 hour and you’d still get to do everything you planned to do today. But the difference is you’d have started your day on a flying note.

So, try this over the next 6 months and watch your life blossom.

But wait, how do I have time to do all of this?
The answer is simple: Sleep early.

Inheritance And Our Role As Parents.

“You’re only 27 you just being you/
“You’re your father’s child, man, thank God you got some me in you” – Drake (You & The 6)

Over the last year, I noticed I’ve been singing the same songs while praying.

These were the same songs my Father would sing during family devotions.

My Father’s been dead for almost 4 years. We haven’t had these devotions for almost 5.

What’s funny is how I sing them in the exact sequence without missing a beat.

Someone reading this right now might think “Oh, he feels that way because he had a great relationship with his father.“

Well, I don’t have anything to say to that, except there’s a lot you can pass down to your children aside genetics and money. And most of these things are subtle.

Your children spend most of their lives watching you.

If you are a great parent or some kind of titan or uber successful individual, they spend their whole lives trying to beat your records.

If you are a bad parent, or probably a good parent who made costly mistakes, they spend their whole lives trying to avoid it.

Someone said this once, “I’m sorry I only talk about money, investing and finances all the time. I’ve seen so much poverty. That’s the only way I can deal with the trauma.“

And just to add, these lyrics from Older by Sasha Sloane shows how much we pick up from our parents.

Some of it is untreated trauma we end up carrying throughout life.

Of course, it’s easy to criticise whoever’s driving from the passenger seat.

Kids grow up and see what life was like from their parents’ perspective.

But it’s clear, every single choice we make as parents ripples across generations.

I know I’m not even a parent yet, but I’ve got 5 siblings who look up to me and telegraph my every move.

I’ve got peers who see me as some sort of shining light in their lives.

I’m also personally motivated to keep pushing myself to the farthest limits of my abilities.

All of these is enough fuel to constantly try to be better and do better.

I have no idea who you are reading this, but whoever you are, I hope you too try to be better and do better… Every. Single. Day.

If not for anyone, at least for yourself.

If not for yourself, then for those coming after you.

Shalom.

7 Productivity Hacks You Can Use To Crush It In 2021.

You’ve probably read countless posts since the 30th of December with people sharing different insights or tips for having a great year.

Chances are you’ve even seen some of the same things I’m about to share with you.

The only claim I make is these are things that work for me. And hopefully, they might work for you too.

Let’s go!

1. Do 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 Things Every Day. No More.

What are the things you need to do every day that will make you feel fulfilled or feel like you had a good day?

For me, I read a daily devotional and pray, read a book (fiction or nonfiction) for about an hour or more (long enough to finish at least one chapter), practice Spanish on my phone with Duolingo for 5 – 15 minutes, read a sales letter, and write for at least 30 minutes. I work out at least 3x a week.

As long as I get all of these done in one day, then that day is a great day for me already. I don’t need to do more. But if I end up doing more, good!

And just to add, I’m not some sort of Superman. I’m sorry, but there are days when I’m low on energy and I can barely manage to do all of this.

On days like that, I might just read for 15 minutes, work out a bit or not even work out at all, practice just one lesson on Duolingo, read just one page of a book, write for a few minutes, and read either just a page, a few paragraphs of a sales letter or none at all.

The most important thing is consistency and frequency.

By being consistent, I’ve managed to lock down these habits. As such, my body doesn’t need a lot of motivation to do any of them. The response is almost automatic. And boy, does it feel fucking good!!!

I can also sleep peacefully.

2. Know What Works For You + Understand Your Body.

This is not an excuse to be lazy or procrastinate. But it’s a great idea if you understand your most productive hours and maximise them, plus also understanding how your body works and how to gain the most from it.

I’m a bit of a nightcrawler (been this way since secondary school). I don’t sleep much at night plus my most productive hours are between 11 pm and 4 am. It’s quiet, less disturbance, plus it feels like this is the time the heavens are open and my brightest ideas are born.

But as much as I’m a nightcrawler my body still demands that I sleep at least 6 – 7 hours every day. If I don’t I end up having a fucked up day!

Well, thankfully, I work a very flexible day job and my resumption time is between 9 – 10 am, plus I live about 20 minutes away, which means I can catch in an extra 4 – 6 hours of sleep every morning. I’m also careful to nap during the day, or once I get back home in the evening.

Going outside this and my day would be a mess.

I read somewhere that our bodies are alarm clocks. This is why people with bad health habits get heart attacks, people with crazy working schedules are strained and become mentally tired over time, and people with bad sleeping habits have a less than an optimal day. It’s simply your body begging you to slow down.

I work out enough to keep myself exceptionally trim – defined muscles, flat stomach, a bit of chest and arms, at least enough to look good naked and in tight clothing.

Doing more than the above doesn’t end well. My body can hardly keep up (passed out in a gym after doing too much in 2019, fell seriously ill twice when I aggressively increased my workout regimen in 2020).

3. Don’t Make Wishes, Set Goals.

You’ve seen this before, in fact, I’m certain that every productivity and getting the best out of the new year post will carry this.

But I read somewhere that dreams are dreams, wishes are wishes, but goals are dreams with a plan to achieve them.

It’s typical for people to make lots of resolutions every New Year and get lost a few months into the year.

Sometimes it’s their fault, sometimes it’s not. Which is why you must have plans to achieve anything you set out to do.

And these plans involve cutting your goals down to bit sizes. Small achievable sizes.

Do you want to write 100 songs in 2021?

It’s a big goal.

But it’s simple.

There are 52 weeks in a year. And you just need to write an average of just 2 songs a week to reach 100 songs. You could spend just 1 hour every day to do this.

I used this as an example because I know someone who did it.

He reached the 100 songs mark in 8 months, and write around 50 more over the remaining 4 months to end the year.

I read at least 40 books every year, for at least the last three years.

But I don’t spend all day in a library. Far from that!

I’ve got a job, a family to feed plus a myriad of personal ventures and I can’t spend my whole day reading. But I manage to read for at least 15 minutes to 1 hour (or more) every day.

At that pace, I can comfortably finish 1 book (or sometimes 2) in 1 week.

There are 52 weeks in a year, remember?

So, I can comfortably read 40, 60, 80 or even 100 books in one year, and neither my business, job or family will suffer.

In 2020, I set a goal to get better with my writing.

But we all know that is a vague goal.

What exactly is get better with my writing?

I simply identified I needed to write more, at least once a week or even every day.

So, what did I do?

I started writing for at least 15 minutes every day. I also started a blog where I post my thoughts at least once a week (Sunday evenings). I wrote at least 50 blog posts in 2020 alone.

I won’t lie to you, it was hard some days.

Sometimes I was so mentally wiped out that I didn’t know what to write about. I just managed to put down anything that came to mind.

Some days it was so easy that my Sunday posts were already ready early in the week. But sometimes I had to write some last minute.

It was so bad sometimes that I had no idea what to write about until I started writing.

Inspiration met me halfway.

But inspiration needed to find me working.

And that’s the most important thing about setting goals or making plans – EXECUTION.

Execute!

4. Focus

I just got a push notification from Netflix. A new series I’m interested in has been released. I still haven’t finished over 40+ episodes from the other series I downloaded.

There are so many distractions to keep you going for the next one thousand years. You look at everything you have to do every day and it’s okay to feel overwhelmed. But it’s unnecessary to wallow in it.

You can make your life simpler… by simply focusing on the IMPORTANT things.

Focus on one important thing at a time.

I learned late last year from my mentor about the importance of deep work.

It’s simple.

You have something to do? Turn off every distraction and just zero in on that single activity.

But it’s also important you understand your body.

Some people work for at least 6 hours straight nonstop!

I can focus for at least an hour and up to 3 hours straight just working and churning out content.

But not everyone can.

So, you must find what works for you.

20 minutes? 30 minutes of totally focused deep work? 45 minutes? And then intermissions in between to recharge your brain. This simple exercise will push you farther than anything else this year.

Remember, whatever you focus on grows.

5. Say No

“You can’t be everything to everybody” – J.Cole (Sacrifices)

Some people aren’t good for you.

Some requests from even the good people in your life aren’t good for you.

Some opportunities aren’t good for you.

Learn to say no to people, to things, to ‘opportunities’ etc.

Offered a drink or weed at a party and you don’t want it? Say no. And don’t try to explain or defend your stance. Just keep it moving!

A friend asks for a small loan and you can’t afford it? Say no.

A job or career opportunity opens up and you don’t see it aligning with your purpose? Let it go.

Be willing to walk away from people, things, situations, circumstances and even ‘opportunities’.

Every open door isn’t meant to be walked through. Accept that fact.

6. Exercise

Need I say more about this?

Few activities leave you feeling good about yourself, while also boosting your health, improving your appearance and elongating your life.

You don’t have to run for a thousand kilometres. Or lift as much weight as Arnold Schwarzenegger does.

It’s okay to just take walks regularly.

Walks have been even proven to be one of the most important factors behind the longevity of the Japanese. They work almost everywhere.

10, 15, 20 pushups, situps or squats everyday compound over time. You don’t even need to do too much. Just keep it regular.

7. Read

Reading 15 minutes or more, or just one page a day can change your life.

Reading changed my life. I have nothing else to add