Take a break from yourself

Excruciating is the appropriate adjective to describe the pain I felt when I realised that I had mistakenly deleted my blog post for the week; a post I painstakingly composed.  It was a topic that got me excited and brought smiles to my face. I must have deleted it when I was de-cluttering my stored messages. I had so many of them especially on my blackberry that they began to irritate me. You know the message icon on blackberry- it is the warehouse for twitter messages, BB chats (and broadcasts) and stored messages. Most times I draft blog posts and store them there. So you can imagine how annoying it is for me to scroll down 13 unnecessary messages to get to an important one.  

On Thursday, I decided to get rid of them and I got rid of my blog post. I discovered this on Saturday morning when I wanted to publish it. It was a painful ouch! I didn’t know how to start all over. Not that I couldn’t, but it was not pleasurable thinking about it. So I decided not to blog that day (my way of rebelling). The following day Sunday, after mass and a long nap, I decided to work on my blog instead. (Rewriting that blog post was not part of my agenda, as I was still hurting over losing it.) 

Recently I added pages to my blog (About, My Quotes and Contact). The About page was reading ‘work in progress’ as I had not written what I wanted to publish about me. However that Sunday, I made sure I typed and published the contents of my ‘About’ page. I added more quotes to ‘My Quotes’ page from my Twitter account @frediliamomodu and edited my contact information. Also, I added a video page to my blog and shared two videos on it (the first video is my favourite- a room tourof a room I detested during NYSC). I finished working on my disclaimer and published it. The joy I felt after working on my blog site overpowered the anger I felt for mistakenly deleting the unpublished blog post. I was sincerely impressed even though it made me realise I still had a lot more work to do. 

That was when it came to me like a light bulb that once in a while we need to take a break from the routine. We need to look at what we have done so far and re-evaluate ourselves. We need to look at what we have been doing, areas we can or should improve on and make the necessary changes. Sometimes we become experts in the routine and gloat in our distorted expertise. We need to be able to plan ourselves well enough not to fall victims of the usual. We ought to know when to take a break and look at the big picture. We need to figuratively step out of our bodies and re-evaluate ourselves thoroughly. It helps us realise where we have gone wrong or what we have been missing. It helps us realise if we have been living someone else's dreams or living the kind of life we desire deep down inside. Ultimately, it makes us more focused, balanced, fulfilled and happier individuals.

This incident made me remember the seventh habit in 7 habits of highly effective people by Stephen R. Covey- sharpen the saw; where he told a story of a man who had been sawing a tree for over five hours and was complaining about how difficult it was. When advised by another man to take time out to sharpen his saw, he replied that he was too busy sawing.

Let us not get caught up trying to get results that we lose the essence of our being.  Do not give in to the pressures of our fast paced world that you don’t pause to smell the flowers. Do not get caught up in doing that you don’t be. Take a break from yourself; sharpen your saw and during this phase, ask yourself questions like this, “Who am I? What do I represent? What do I want from life? Why am I doing this? Is this what I truly want from life? Am I truly happy and so many more” Whatever question you may ask yourself or whichever way you may go about it, the whole essence is to guide you to living the life you truly desire, a life that brings joy to your heart and smiles to your face when you think of it. A life that brings you satisfaction. A life that doesn't have to be perfect (and most times  isn't) but must be yours.

Just like two children writing a long essay with a pencil and both eager to get their ideas out. One child keeps writing without taking a pause to sharpen his pencil because he is carried away with the ideas pouring out of him. He keeps writing oblivious how his work looks. All he wants is to finish and get all his ideas out. The pencil becomes blunt but he keeps writing till he is done. However the second child while writing checks his pencil; if blunt, takes out his sharpener, and sharpens it. Each time he notices the pencil is blunt, he takes out his sharpener and sharpens it. The first child got attention for finishing first while the second got recognition for finishing well. 

Please don't forget to like my Facebook page by clicking the facebook like button on your top left thanks or follow me on twitter @frediliamomodu One love!