With Belief In Self. A Way To Live. (1 Minute Read).

Today, you will not be beset by challenges, but by opportunities to claim personal victories. You will not be guided by ignorance, but by morals and ethics, to do the right thing always and walk away from the wrong. Finally, your heart and mind will not be in conflict. You have found the balance to live in contentment, with a positive attitude and a by principle which renders help to others, makes them smile and brings you happiness. 

Belief in self makes you wealthy, healthy and confident to accomplish everything on which you’ve set your mind. It is a dynamic concept where you let the world fall away around you momentarily and all that remains is you. And in that time you take good stock of who you are, what you are worth, what you have to offer yourself and your conviction to have your victories.

It is always nice to hear others say that they believe in you. It might be life changing to hear those words from your own mouth. A person who believes in themself never experiences doubt. Doubt is the root of all defeat and fear and this is not what your life needs. A life lived with self belief is a life destined for victory.

Finding Contentment Before Happiness. (1 Minute Read).

A woman finally bought a beautiful painting she had set her heart on for years. It took her a long time to save the money for the work of art and quite a bit of sacrifice. But now, the sashes and strokes of colours, hues and details were in her hands and she could not stop smiling. ‘Where should I hang it?’ she thought to herself. ‘Where will you look the most beautiful in the house?’ 

Hours passed. The woman hung the painting from every wall in her house, but was not satisfied with how it looked. She pulled down every ornament and picture she had in the house and replaced them with the painting, but every time the lighting was wrong, the direction it faced was awkward and at times the wall was too short for the painting’s length, that it fit crookedly. 

Days passed. The woman just could not find the perfect place for her painting. Then she thought perhaps the placement did not matter, but the colour of the wall did. She was no art expert but maybe the painting contrasted badly with the wall paint. She would fix that. Out came the paint buckets. She could not paint just one room. She would have to paint all the walls so she could find the best one with the new colour. 

Weeks passed. The house was repainted, but the painting still did not look perfect anywhere it was hung. Weeks became months and months became a full year and the painting sat leaning against the living room wall of the woman’s house. Every night after work she would sit and stare at it and wonder why she could not find the perfect place for it. She felt sad. Moreover, she felt like her heart was unsettled and all her sacrifices had gone to waste. 

One day a friend came over to visit the woman. When the person saw the painting unceremoniously leaning against the wall they asked what was wrong with it. The woman explained her dilemna. Her friend laughed. Annoyed, by the response the woman asked what was funny. Her friend apologized and explained that perhaps the painting looked perfect in the art gallery she found it in and it may never look the same way anywhere else. Maybe the lady didn’t fall in love with the painting, but with the way it looked where it was and that setting was difficult to replicate. But now the painting was in the best place it could ever hope to be, because it found a home leaning on the wall on the floor, where it would be admired by the woman every day. 

Not every thing in life will be perfect for us. But we should not turn our lives upside down just because one thing does not work out for us. Many times, even our expectations for our lives are too unrealistic and when things don’t add up, we feel like we have failed ourselves. In such cases, we really need to appreciate the things we already have. Furthermore, we must appreciate the way things worked out, even when they were bad, for there are valuable lessons to be learned in our failures. It is in the nourishment of contentment that happiness will find its roots and flourish. 

Be The Victor, Not The Victim. (1 Minute Read).

It’s nice to complain to others about the things that bother and worry us. It’s nice to have a listening ear for our concerns. It’s nice to know that people will empathise with us and give us comforts and assurances which will make us feel good about ourselves. I read somewhere, that the things that make us feel nice, soon become addictive. The good feelings we get, from being the center of attention, because of our problems, are hard to deny and we constantly have the urge to feed them, by complaining even more.

But, sooner or later, our complaints get old, boring and annoying. However, this doesn’t stop some people from finding new things to complain about. Before long, these persons identify themselves as victims. Victims of life, victims of the world, victims of society, victims of economics, victims of the system, victims of politics and the list goes on. What they fail to realise however, is that they have become victims of themselves.

What is it to be a victim of yourself? It’s when you, as an individual, stop taking responsibility for the actions which got you into problems in the first place. Because your actions can always be blamed on the perceived scheming/actions/doing of someone else, you will never feel the need to be accountable for the things wrong in your life. Soon, the victim persona emerges and life becomes inconsequential, because everyone else is to blame and everyone else has to fix your problems for you.

In their need to feed the shallow feelings of importance, victims become even more defeatist in their approach to life. They begin to believe that life owes them and when the debt isn’t paid, they feel depressed, betrayed and lost. That is until someone new and understanding pays heed to them.

Victims can save themselves. They can rise above their problems and they can live productive lives. When faced with an issue, instead of decrying it’s existence and blaming everyone else for its presence, people need to sit and try to figure out how to fix the problem. After the problem is solved, a little introspection is required of course, just in case the issue arose because of your actions. Owning up to, solving and then learning from your mistakes, are the first steps to being a victor in your own life. And, that’s a good feeling to have.

The Last Time? But We Weren’t Ready To Forget. (30 Second Read).

This could be the last time you read this blog. Why do I say that? Well, life is so remarkably unpredictable and fickle, that for some reason yet to be known or forseen by me, I could call this blogging business quits. I’m just saying. We really never do know, if and when, somethings we are accostomed too, will cease to exist. And pretty soon, we forget about them. I am not saying this will happen, I’m saying it can. 

Take for instance the music playlists on radio stations. At the height of their popularity some songs are played over and over and over. As new songs are released and gain popularity, the previously popular tunes get relegated to the bottom of the playlist and after a while they get removed. Think about a once popular song that you enjoyed listening too. Can you remember the last time you heard it played? At that time, did you think that this would be the last time you would hear it for a very long time or never again? 

Our brains work the same way. New information and data gets stored over the old constantly. Soon we forget we had some memories locked away inside us and we never expected that our lives will push us farther away from them. We never expected that there would be a last time for them.

Think about someone you never ever saw again and the last time you did.

A place you love and never visited again.

A book you read countless times, and never picked up again.

The last time you said your deceased pet’s name or had a memory of them.

The last time you had a good feeling you wished would never go away. 

Do you remember the days of good health and a stress free life?

When was the last time you had childhood memories? 

The beauty of life is also the saddest part; it moves on, endures and thrives, but because of this, we forget, replace and change. 

The old saying goes ‘we should live each day and experience as if it were our last.’ We should also expect that some blogger will make us remember those ‘last time moments’ in our lives, and inspire us to revisit them for the first time in a long time.

How’s That? The Attitude Tho. (1 Minute Read).

Unless you are living under a rock, you would have heard the saying, ‘It’s not what’s said, but how it’s said’. Sadly, there are many under-a-rock dwellers among us. Their time locked in with their ignorance, has put them at an apparent evolutionary disadvantage. They never developed the social communication skills required to live and thrive in a civilized and understanding environment. 

Knowing how to speak to people you come into contact with on a daily basis, requires no small amounts of politeness, graciousness and tact. I haven’t even mentioned qualities such as empathy or skills such as active listening. Verbal communication will deliver the ‘what is being said’, while paralanguage will determine the ‘how it is being said’. Since non verbal communication is decoded in conjunction with the verbal communication, it’s necessary to manage the use of paralanguage properly in the verbal package. 

Basically, be careful with how you say things to others, since more meaning is deduced from paralanguage, than from the actual content. It raises problems, if the way things are said is misunderstood in the context of what was said and the other accompanying contexts. 

You should always be mindful that some people are very sensitive to tones, intonation and general bad attitudes. Others simply do not have any tolerance for ignorant, dismissive and ‘holier than thou’ complexes. 

As a general rule, if people know they tend to aggravate others around them whenever they crawl out from under their rocks, they should just practice the art of shutting up, if they cannot monitor their paralanguage. If they wish to join a civilized conversation, they should cultivate some sensibilities and understanding first. They will find that others will gladly receive their messages without feeling insulted or uncomfortable. 

If you are on the receiving end of bad verbal attitude, it’s very important to exercise patience and restraint in your response. Consider if the affront is warranted given the situation. If it isn’t, stand up for yourself and your dignity and make it clear that you are not familar with degenerate attitudes and as a human being, you wish the other person would converse with you in a much better and humane manner. 

Fighting Complacency: It’s An Eye Opening Experience. (1 Minute Read).

When things stay the same for a very long time, we tend to get comfortable and somewhat complacent with our situations. We follow the logic of ‘if it ain’t broke, then don’t fix it’. But, how do we really know something is broken, if we do not step out of our comfort zones and objectively subject it to thorough analysis? How do we know that our current situation is not a threat to our personal development? How can we be certain that we are making the most out of our one chance in this world? Most people have fallen asleep in their lives and have failed to test their circumstances and situations with a view to have better, be better and hope for better.

Thus, some of us need to wake up and open our eyes to the world around us. Have you ever tried opening your eyes after a deep sleep to a room flooded with light? It’s a very disorienting and sometimes painful experience and the urge is to suddenly close your eyes once more. Such is the struggle. Such is the pain. But, this is exactly what we must do, to stop seeing the darkness in our complacency and start adjusting our sights to light of the real world. Eyes, well adjusted to light, will never be weak again. If you have lived your life or done certain things one way only, it’s going to be hard to change those behaviors. It will not be accomplished overnight, or tomorrow or next week. But, people need to start at some in time and that is half the battle already won.

The human instinct for improvement and advancement has worked hand in hand with our evolution. The more we influenced our situations and environments, the more our bodies and minds changed to match those adjustments. The task of re-wiring our minds to think in a different way has its rewards and benefits, the biggest of which is knowledge. Wiping away the old ways from our heads and filling our minds with new information and wisdom is a step in the right direction, to combating the complacency we have cemented in our lives.

Things We Always Have And Can Share With Others. (30 Second Read).

A Smile: Custom made, Free and will almost always be returned. The best currency in a simple non-verbal transaction. 

Best Wishes: Wishing someone a great day, Happy Birthday or Congratulations never takes anything out of us. They only count if they are genuine.

Good News: Spreading good news is as simple as telling others you woke up this morning, you are healthy and intend to make it through your day with a positive attitude.

Greetings: It takes an extremely grumpy person to declare to themselves that they are out of Good Mornings and Good Nights to share with others and refuse to say it to those they meet. Greetings are common courtesy and like Best Wishes need to be said genuinely.

Love: This is not a romantic type of love, but the care and compassion you feel for those around you. It’s being interested in the things that make them happy and doing things to show them that they are important. 

Patient Journalism: A Severely Wounded Concept. (5 Minute Read).

Golden Rule Of Media: If in doubt, leave it out. 

Journalistic Instinct: Everyone has an agenda. 

In 2009, a rumour was kindled via a popular talk program and spread as fast as wildfire, that a container filled with children had been found at the port of Port of Spain. Since the term ‘human trafficking’ was at the time catching on and people were becoming aware that such an unfathomable thing was possible, the rumor caused momentary panic. The port was shut down so the authorities could conduct searches for the children, who were alive and dead, depending on which media report you listened too. News outlets carried so called eye witness accounts of the discovery in their updates. Interestingly, very little information was requested by the media from the police which had spearheaded the search. While the officers looked high and low, media outlets sought out their own sources of information, restless for a new angle. In the end, nothing was found on the port. There was no container, no corpses and no children. The rumor was allegedly started by disgruntled estate security officers at the port who were clamoring for wage negotiations to commence. These were the very same officers who volunteered very detailed and chilling information to the media, while the port was still being searched. They made their point: without their security services, containers filled with children may possibly slip through our borders one day. It never occurred to anyone that such a lie would be concocted for such a cause. But, when interests are involved, (as they always are) a journalist must be mindful of every possible implication when getting information from sources who are usually trusted. Sources should be treated like batteries. Yes, they power your stories for a while, but every once in a while you should check to see if they need to be changed. You will find that as a source’s circumstances and interests change, so too will the quality of their information. 

Fun fact: A top level official in the trade union which was representing the officers in their dispute, was one of the key persons who offered information to the media. It is alleged that the said person called the talk program and gave the initial pieces of information regarding the container. 

Why did good journalists not handle the story more carefully? Why did good journalism fail on that day? Why didn’t anyone wait until the police finished their searches before running a report? Impatience got the better of us. Yes, I am guilty of spreading the misinformation. I was one of the reporters who trusted the words of the trade union official, because he gave me access to information. Not because he was the most authorised person to get the facts from, but simply because he was there. 

When journalists sacrifice credibility for access, problems will arise.
That problem is called misinformation. It is an embarrassment and integrity buster to any media house. Fast forward to 2017. A young WPC is reported missing around 9am one day, social media has become the fastest means to spread news, rumours and opinions; it’s like the pig shit in Game Of Thrones, and the chaos ensues. The first reports state her body has been found with gunshot wounds. This piece of information stayed in public for many hours, before being changed to: the WPC remains missing. No body, no shots, nothing. One social media platform is used to spread information from persons purportedly involved in the search. They claimed to have seen a body, were not allowed near it by their superiors, but it looked like the missing woman. The updates from the media are confusing. One Web page has a story about the WPC, stating she has not been found and remains missing, but the picture accompanying the story is captioned ‘shot’. It isn’t until 4pm that day that all the stories agree finally, that the woman is missing and there was no evidence to suggest she is dead. In the words of Gandalf, “hope is kindled”.

Once again access was preferred over credibility, for information on the search. Some reporters turned to their low level contacts involved in the search for information, because they wanted to have the headline first. The patient journalists waited until the ones with the authority to divulge the information supplied it to them. And they would not be rushed, but they were forthright with what they did know to those who were smart enough to ask them. The conflicting accounts shows a level of irresponsible impatience in the reporting on that day. The WPC did turn up dead, but five days later. 

As a journalist, knowing the right persons or sources to turn to for information is critical to the trade. Understanding that everyone has an agenda is being aware. If your source has lost its credibility and their information gives rise to doubt, leave it out. Be conscious of the power of social media and other platforms. We cannot control their reach, influence and consequences, thus everything posted or shared must be checked, double checked and triple checked for validity, consistency and credibility. Finally, patience is needed in this fast paced information filled world. Forget the deadline and headline; the story will unfold on its own, in its own time. A journalist must tell the truth when it comes out and not spend the day adjusting rumours and misinformation, hoping they turn out to be true.

The Story Of The Sun And The Moon. (3 Minute Read).

There are many ancient folk tales which tell the story of the Sun and Moon and their origins. Personally, I have a only heard of two; one which is romantic in nature and the other, which, is philosophical, is the one I will share with you. 

The celestial bodies, the Sun and the Moon were thought to be siblings. After all, they looked similar, they shared the same sky, provided the world with light and were both revered for their importance in everyday life. And like siblings, they were very competitive and jealous of each other. Naturally, the Sun always felt it was the superior sibling, since it was older and it’s light was much more powerful than the Moon’s. But, it resented it’s younger brother, because people never complained about the heat of the Moon, while they did so over his heat almost every day. The Moon meanwhile, was jealous of his brother’s power and size. People worshipped him and praised him for giving and sustaining life on the world. 

The young Moon was very bitter about the situation and decided to do something about it. One day while his brother, the Sun, was halfway through his trip across the sky, the Moon moved slowly across his face, blocking his brother’s light from reaching the world. Despite the Sun’s protestations against the actions of his younger brother, the Moon would not move from his position. He had expected that the people on the ground would have been happy to see him in the middle of the day. But they were not.

The world was thrown into chaos. The Sun had been blocked off by a dark object. The people of the world did not see a gleaming yellow disc in the sky, just a forboding shadow creeping in front of the sun and blocking it’s light. They panicked and cried to the Gods to save them. Their pleas were answered. The Gods pulled the Moon away from his brother and let the world bathe in his light once more. When the Gods questioned the Moon about his actions, they realized his concerns and torment. The Gods explained both the Sun and the Moon were meant to share the sky equally. They both followed the same path, but would shine at different times, so there was no reason for either of them to feel worth less than the other. The Moon finally understood the error of his ways. He is still a bit stubborn though, as you can still find him lingering around in the western sky in the morning, when his brother begins his daily voyage and ever so often he would be mischievous and upstage his brother and we would experience a solar eclipse.

We must always remember that everyone has their own time to shine in this world and it does you no good to try to overshadow others just to be in the spotlight. Your time WILL come and when it does, you will be in all you’d splendor and glory. If you try to shine before your time and at the expense of others, people will only see darkness and chaos in your actions. Be patient and resist being selfish and jealous of others in life. 

Why Is This Happening To Me?! (1 Minute Read).

Got soaked in the rain? You are probably a natural wet t-shirt model.

Got dumped with the ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ line? It’s definitely them. 

Got cheated on? No biggie. It’s good when the trash can take itself out. 

Can’t get to work on time? Real work only starts when you get there, since you are the most competent employee. Everyone else has breakfast while waiting on you.

Car stalls or gets a flat tyre in the middle of a traffic jam? Your embarrassment threshold instantly levels up. (+100 points). 

The boss always picks on you at work? Someone has to do their job for them or their incompetence starts to show.

Coming down with the virus? That wet T-shirt contest probably wasn’t a great idea.

Broke before pay day? Try falling in love again with all the stuff you bought after your last pay day.

Failed an exam? It’s hardly the same as failing at life. 

Lost your luggage at the airport? The fashion police seized it because your sense of style was probably a public hazard. 

Your students think you are a boring teacher? It’s fine. Their parents don’t get paid to hear their criticisms of their upbringing, so they send them to a much more qualified individual.

You’ve come to the end of your favorite blog’s post of the day? All good things must come to an end so they can begin anew another day.