Monday 22 June 2015

Your Comfort Zone is the Enemy of Your Progress

“Your comfort zone is the enemy of your progress”.

I said this to dear colleague of mine last week. It was a phrase I read a while back. I repeated it last week to make myself sound profound more than anything else. But it seems my colleague friend accepted the adage with enthusiasm and has since been repeating it to everyone else at work.


Enjoying a drink with my colleague
In fact this phrase is more true for my professional life because in the last few weeks it has benefited from a few upwards movements. It has all happened so fast, and although these movements have been largely positive, I can’t help but feel a bit dazed in the aftermath of it all. Remember in my third post, I told you that my contract at work had finished? Then in the sixth post, I told you I was getting ready to return to work? Well this week, in fact today, I started a new job. 

“Madeline. Make yourself clear”, you might be whispering to yourself. 

Let me explain.

I have been working at my company since 2010. In 2014, I signed a contract to cover a colleague’s maternity leave in another part of the business. When that ended last month, my return to my original post was inevitable, and I did in fact occupy my original post for week. Then I was successful in my application to yet another maternity cover (yes, same business), and hence the whirlwind of activity in my work life.

I used the term dazed because although I thankfully have the familiarity of moving within the same company, I am not someone who embraces change so readily (I'm working on this). I am very pleased at being shortlisted from a pool of equally talented candidates, but this new role does comes with a bit more responsibility. However in my not wanting my comfort zone to tie me down and keep me as an enemy to my own progress I decided to take on this challenge
Need I say more?
This is exactly what your comfort zone is -  the enemy of your progress.

Don't shy away from a challenge!
There is nothing wrong with your comfort zone, because in life I feel we do need it at times to provide us with some grounding when other areas of life are not stable. However, be it your career, business, relationships or the pursuit of a personal interest it can also be the golden handcuff that might glisten like a new bracelet but is in fact keeping you chained to stagnation.


My creature comforts. I am in the zone!

How did I know it was time to move? I simply felt it. Here are some of the things that I experienced, which I feel are some of the hallmarks of outgrowing your current position in life:

1. I was bored at work 
I felt unchallenged. I literally used to fill up the work day with reading pages on Wikipedia, calculating my monthly budget and engaging in anything else I thought would distract me.

2.The slightest occurrences annoyed me
This I know this boiled down to frustration. I wasn't happy with myself and I feel I did actually do an 'emotional dump' on most people who crossed me at work, and this included managers! I no longer had respect for authority because I felt they were the ones holding me back. (I will address this in further detail in another post)

3. I felt overqualified
You might have attended every course going at work, and when this happens, it is time to move on. I didn't sign up to any courses at work but I did continue with my studies. I feel this is the only way I used my "golden handcuff" positively. My boredom pushed me to do my Masters in International Communication and Diplomacy. 



I hope I have helped you in identifying the areas in your life that need a little bit of shaking up. Please do leave comments below on how you are getting on with progression.

Lastly, I want to thank those of you who have been reading this blog and personally informing me how much you enjoy it. Please do let me know if you have any suggestions on ways to make this blog more enjoyable for you. And please do follow by clicking on the "Bloglovin'" tab on the side. You can also subscribe by email (also on the right hand panel).
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Thursday 11 June 2015

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Miss T Says...

"We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think.

- Swami Vivekananda
Hi SoulJourners!

It has been a long time since we spoke. Please accept my apologies. The different activities demanding my attention extended themselves further than the time I have. Things have been mad crazy since my return from the states. I have been trying to unpack, wash my holiday clothes (which is real difficult without a washing machine of my own) and get ready for my return to work, which included ensuring my uniform still fits, signing new contracts, attending meetings, and the list goes on. 


Time goes by so quickly!

I do not intend to drag out this holiday lark longer than it needs to be. I do however want to share one last post about one of the women I met whilst abroad. To protect her identity, I'll call her Miss T. Miss T's  personality has left a firm imprint on my memory because I found her to be an open box of contradictions. 


Miss T be open like my boxes
I call her open because from the very first meeting Miss T opened the door to her life and told us to step right in. She offered intimate details of herself that I would have thought only her nearest and dearest would be privy to. From the get go we were invited to her home, she wanted to do business with us, she wanted to hang out, she wanted to visit us in London, she wanted to follow me on Insta...and so on. 


I speak of her contradictions, because whilst she lives a life that the super conservative christian might frown upon, she insists she is a child of God; her world is fast paced, yet ,"I love being the mother figure to the young person who needs a mother", she declared. I found her company both grinding and fascinating. I was fed up but still wanted to hear her speak...and speak is one thing she was good at! 

Amidst all of Miss T's talking however, I came to realise that all her speech was an accumulation of her life experiences. And as I reflect, I must admit that she actually had some precious jewels of wisdom that one could embellish one's life with, making it glisten with success. Now I can't remember everything she said, but I will share with you what I remember. 

1. Sell Yourself
You see my smile?
Let the best bits of you shine 
I don't think Miss T was referring to standing on a street corner here, or being full of yourself. But I do remember her saying that by the age of 19 she was a store manager, with employees old enough to be her mother working underneath her. She attributed this success to the fact that at her interview, she spoke very highly of herself to the point of almost bragging. She was unapologetic about raving about her skills (there might have been some embellishment in there too! Ssssh!) and refused for any past mistakes to define her. 

2. Step Out in Faith 
There may come to a point in life where you may think "enough with all the strategising, calculating, turning it over and under, and going around and around. Now I am just going to do it". Which is the same point Miss T arrived at only two months ago. Prior to April 2015, Miss T had a secure job as a paralegal at a law firm with a steady income. This was until she decided to step out. She gave up her job, put her house up for rent and moved to Las Vegas to start again.  Please do NOT misunderstand me. I am not advocating reckless behaviour. However when you are in a position in life that you are persistently unhappy with, and have a sensible and realistic plan to get you  to the place you'd rather be, and have prayed or meditated  and are at peace with your plan, you should by all means step out in faith. You may initially feel like a fish out of water but I strongly believe that if you constantly talk to God, stand firm in the belief of your success, and continue to take strategic steps, it will eventually pay off. 



This was the very painting hanging up in Miss T's hallway. 

3. You Will Never Get Rich Working for Someone Else
I can't say I have had enough work/business experience to be able to endorse this one fully. But I guess what Miss T meant by this remark is that your employer will always make decisions that will benefits his/her business. And these decisions includes your take home pay! Furthermore, working for yourself will drive you to be successful because if things turn for the worse, simply switching jobs will not be an option. I think this is what might have pushed Miss T. to quit her safe job as a paralegal in Ohio in order to start her own collection agency in Nevada,
4.You Will Fail if You Venture into a Business You Know Nothing About
"Why open a restaurant, if you know nothing about cooking? Or about service?" Miss T exclaims one night whilst driving us back to our hotel. I think I totally agree with this. Miss T insists she is certain her collection agency will succeed after years of working with lawyers who specialised in claiming back unpaid loans for large corporations. If I am honest with you, I would apply this school of thought to most things in life, from business to blogging. I would like to add in my two cents and say if you are looking to venture into something new it would be advisable to get some work experience, attend workshops or to do some volunteering first. 

5. Always Read the Small Print
I think most of us can think of a time we wanted to beat ourselves up for not reading and reading the small print, or asking more questions before signing on the dotted line, or checking the box. Miss T's experience in law taught her to ALWAYS read the small print first. Fortunately this seemingly small act of wisdom saved her thousands of dollars on the monthly repayments on her car when she fell ill and could not work for a few months.

No more talking about my holiday.
The End

Well that's it for now. I hope these pearls of wisdom have helped you in some of your decisions, I also hope you have found them practical.


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Wednesday 3 June 2015

Everything Eventually Comes to an End



I don't know whether I'm grateful to come home to home cooked meals prepared by me (I'm missing my Ghanaian spices badly), and the familiar smell of my flat, or whether I could have benefitted with just one more week of sunshine, casual walks down The Strip and the bright and exhilarating lights of the city of Las Vegas. Whilst my mind, spirit and soul try to agree on where I'd rather be I thought I'd use the opportunity to reflect and muse on the past two weeks.





Time has a funny way of distorting itself to appear longer or shorter than it actually is. It just cannot be easily quantified. Whilst it was only a fortnight ago I instructed my sister to ensure my plants are well looked after in my absence before shutting my front door firmly behind me with excitement beating in my chest, it actually feels like I stepped on the plane in Manchester Airport a thousand summers ago.

Please don't let my plants die!

The time spent away from the hustle and bustle of London, away from the constant monitoring of finances and the monotony of the working week gave us the time to live life a little more deeply.  What I mean is that when we walked it was with less quickness,  when we ate we took our time, when we laughed it was more heartily, and when we spoke, it was with more conviction.  

We also had the time to appreciate the different characters we came accross, from the Somali taxi driver who insisted that "Lagos f**ked up", after learning my boyfriend is Nigerian (I know, awkward right?); to the Israeli lady who thought we made such a beautiful couple and wouldn't stop kissing my cheeks and hugging my boyfriend (I didn't mind though cos she gave us free entry into a comedy show); to the American woman who we met at the mall who then invited us to her house for a cookout, and then wouldn't let us leave (she scared me a bit - lol!)

I saw the world whilst in the LV
These memories, along with the many more we created,  some good some not so good, are what make going away worthwhile. Not only that, before the holiday I felt like I had been in the ring with Life and she was knocking me the hell out. I felt weak and exhausted and as if I had lost my way a little. So  I prayed that I would return to the UK refreshed and rejuvenated and ready to reenter real life. I can at least say I feel much more prepared to face the coming months.

What is more poignant is that whilst waiting in Terminal 3 of McCarran Airport I received a message reminding me that the first half of the year is almost over, and urging me to look forward to the second half with gratitude.The first half of 2015 hasn't been bad, but I feel this holiday is an official marker for me to "finish hard". 

Where have you visited this year? Where do you plan to go? Do you plan to take your short break at home?

My holiday might have ended, but now there is more progress,  more laughter (let's face it there are more tears too!) more learning, more success along the months of January to May firmly etched in my figurative book of appreciation I look forward to creating more.


Everything must eventually come to an end :-(
P.S. if you are looking to be led beside the still waters Vegas is NOT the  place. There ain't nothing quiet about Vegas!
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