This is exactly what I told myself this morning and this is exactly what the motivation video I am watching right now is telling me: “While you are crying, complaining, etc… others are moving on with their lives”.

Does it mean, we should live our lives comparing ourselves to others? Not even a second. It means much more and as far as I am concerned, it means the world. Let me tell you why and how.

You achieve nothing with a negative mindset

Yes, things are hard. Yes things can make you cry. Yeah, you may be living in a sh***thole country and so what?

When you focus on the negative thoughts just like Oprah Winfrey said (I am in love with her), you just drive negativity. Another woman which inspires me, Joyce Meyer talks about the “Battlefield of Mind“. Our mind is what we decide it should be. We have the full capacity to put only POSITIVE in our mind and throw away everything else.

You can’t go to your maximum if you don’t try.

The learning seems obvious here. Should I say more? How many times did you think, “If I had done this”, “If i tried”, ” I should have done this”? Too often. Cut it short and get going. At the most, you will fall and stand up. In some situations (I speak from experience), you may even loose some money. What a big deal! Everything is worth nothing.

There is no other way to put it simply. If Linda Ikeji had thought blogging was funny, she would not have achieved everything. Now, she is the most-paid African blogger, it is her full-time job and she lives from it.

She just tried once, kept on doing it and moved forward. At least, because you will learn from your experience whatever the outcome, you can just try.

Please, keep learning, keep striving, keep pushing

I will go more in details about the learning part, just below because it needs a WHOLE section. Indeed, it has to sink. In the meantime, let us keep striving and pushing.

Of course, you can’t get good at something by doing it just once. We are surely all aligned on this sentence. Not aligned? Feel free to research it (Google is our best friend). There is no magic in life, work is the magic. Doing things over and over, that is what creates perfection, nothing else.

If I recall my first blogging articles, back in 2012, I am not sure, I would feel proud of them. I was clumsy, not sure of myself and it felt in the way I wrote. Now, can I say that I am awesome writer? Not yet but now, I find my style, my voice. To become a JK Rowling, I will still need to work on it.

About my job, I feel the same. When I launched the business two years ago, I was not confortable enough about strategic marketing even though I had gone to school for it and I had been practising it for years in a company. Thus, I searched templates, I kept learning and I developped new skills. In the process, I discovered more valid axis of differentiation (namely content marketing), and now, this is where my focus is. When I speak to leads, I am more confident and sell my services better. Did it happen over the night? Not at all. It took me two years of practice and learning.

Therefore, if you are not confortable, just ask yourself, if you are pushing, striving enough as per your dreams and objectives. Most of the time, you will realise that you are not doing enough. Do more, and you will be fine.

Crying is not a crime. Cry, send it all out and then WAKE UP

Yesterday, I was sad and I told it. Now, I am moving on. People who tell you that crying is bad are just big liars. In my African environment especially, and in my country Cameroon, crying is not well seen. Crying is generally accepted as part of the mourning process. It is also accepted when you are a child and being beaten up. Out of it, you must be a man or a woman. Life is tough and therefore “don’t cry”.

Unfortunately, as far as I am concerned, I have always been crying for nothing and everything. It’s part of my character. I cry in the middle of sad movies. In other cases, it can be infront of difficult situations or even when reading a very intense book. I often thought I was not “normal” because of that easy ability to cry. In the eyes of my mum for example, I am still seen as somebody that is not strong enough because I cry easily.

Just like I did, cut it short. For the purpose of this article, I did a quick research on “the benefits of crying” (yeah, written just like that) and surprisingly enough, I found a great deal of articles on the subject. I just chose one of them. Please, read it. After going through it, I hope you will get conforted in the fact that crying is no big deal.

Casual, simple: Your dreams can happen, make them happen

My dream is to get people inspired. My dream is to create big African brands which affect the world. I have understood that to make that happen, the way we tell stories have to change. I did not know it when I launched my business but it is no big deal. I know it NOW. What matters is the dream is there. It does not matter that it seems hard. It even less matters that most of the times, people think I am fancy, that I am wasting intelligence instead of searching money.

What I have understood is DREAMS do transform the world, at least they transform your world. So, just do it. You believe you need that degree to get there, just do it. You need to wake up everyday at 5.00 am (hello team), just do it. Just do it, like the Nike guys.

When you read that slogan, it seems like “good advertising”. Please, just read this article which tells the story behind the brand. You will understand that “Just do it” is their ADN. That is how the founders got it right. They just did what they dreamed about, what they believed was right, so seriously just do it.

I have been reading so many personal development articles. More and more, i watch inspirational videos. I spent 30 years of my life not doing those things. I spent 30 years focusing on being up on the last music video, on the last article etc.. At some point in time, I got broken inside and I needed to get inspired to take back the control of my dreams. It was a choice, a conscious choice I had to make. It was not funny at the start. Learning from others to believe in my dreams. It felt like I was still growing my head with fantasies. Not anymore.

DISCIPLINE: Seems unecessary but it is what you have to do. 

I listen about it, I read testimonies of leaders in the world and I feel it. I often used to tell my colleagues  back in my corporate life that I was one of the most laziest person in the world. They did not understand it, because I was really organized. In fact, organization is was meant being lazy for me. It was about building habits, well accessible folders, useful templates which gave me clarity and made it “easy” to manage all my activities.

At the beginning of my career, I was in the office everyday by 7.30 AM. I woke up at 5.30 EVERY SINGLE DAY. At some point in time, I stopped it but now that I am getting back to having an extremely strict routine, I feel the difference. These last weeks, I felt sad, tired and when I look at it, it is mostly because I lost discipline. Discipline fuels you to achieve your plans.

The dreams, moved to small actions, to small steps everyday, this is what keeps you going whatever the challenges of life. Don’t assume it’s easy. It is not because I am saying it here that it is easy. In my environment, living in parent’s home, having a toddler, it was initially very easy to derail. It was more importantly easy because I woke up late and I did not have that time for me, anymore. When I decided to wake up early, it just changed EVERYTHING.

WAKE UP, Plan your day, move on, do it every day whatever the odds. I have not yet completely succeeded so I can’t tell you, you WILL succeed. What i can promise is you will feel better with no second-thought. Just do it (Yeah Nike again)

Learn something new every single day

I had a managing director and mentor (Thank you for eveything Baker) that used to tell me about the 8*3 principle. Each day, we have 8 hours to sleep, 8 hours to work and 8 hours “free”. What we do of the 8 hours that are left to ourselves define the altitude of our lives, how far we can go. I remember him asking me the question “Anne, what do you do of those 8 hours?”.

At the time, and as it often happens in life, I was not ready to hear the feedback. I was not completely ready to change my lifestyle and to get out of my confort zone. In fact, I was just dreaming, not preparing where I wanted to go. I had goals written in my profesionnal development plan but in reality, I was not doing as much as I could or I should to get closer to those objectives and dreams. I was moving from one day to another. Still, finally, the feedback from Mr. MAGUNDA sinked. I finally got it, and in the past two-years, working as an entrepreneur, this is my GREATEST achievement. Yesterday, for example, I spent the day learning. I read articles from creative and edgy marketing professionals. I discovered the story of Nike and I learned. Moreover, I learned about the colours to be used in marketing communication and how to use them. From yesterday, I wrote some ideas, I shared information on social media. In short, it was a happy day.

You can’t become a great person if you don’t learn. You have to work the thoughts, know everything about your sector of activity, be aware of the latest trends. People often believe school ends at school. I wwould absolutely not go back to standard school (trying for an MBA, etc..). Still, I definetely try and look for any piece of learning, certification (free or paid) that is in line with my objectives. I take it as a personal objective to stay ahead of the curve and for it, I need to learn. It gives me more depth, it grows the intelligence (which is not a given) and generates crazy ideas, which can lead to awesome execution.

Thanks to Baker for the awesome piece of learning. And to you reading me, I would say, what do you do of your 8 spare hours?

If you are still reading up to here, I say BRAVO. You made it, this is what we call a step (lol). In short, don’t forget that while you are leaning down, others are moving on. It’s a cycle. The up and downs are part of the game. What is important is how you transform the downs into up. Everything can change just based on the attitude. These are lessons which I learn every single day. What is the point of lessons, if you don’t share them?

If the lessons where useful, come and cheer me up with a comment or a nod. Share the fun with others and join me on Facebook and Twitter for more. 

Love, Anna♥