I really do not have what it takes

Let me surprise you. Whatever it is you want out of life for yourself, you currently do not have all it takes to achieve them. You are not up to the task. At least not yet.

The content in this article is extracted from?Full Steam & Hard Left?#32.?A?weekly newsletter on Personal development based on real-life lessons.

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Hey there,

If you have ever felt overwhelmed or clueless about how you can achieve a set goal, then you should immediately drop it, and forget about that goal. The only way to get things done or achieve anything is by sticking to what you already know. If you agree entirely, can I get a “Hmm, word.”

Deactivates sarcasm

If you ask me how last month was, I would honestly pause before answering because things that I haven’t precisely been conditioned to handle are the things I experienced this week. But it’s all good, I guess. Change is inevitable and we should all embrace it.

Today is for short tales and case studies and the goal is to provide practical examples of how you can and should embrace uncertainty and take action even in the face of it.

Case 1:

I was on the road for over 12 hours on the 3rd week in October to attend a 4-day training seminar. Naturally, if I were told to travel for 12 hours by road, I would consider shooting whoever makes that request in the head but I have an ideology that I would be sharing and hopefully, if adopted, would lead to exponential growth.

This is worth mentioning,

• I got to experience the wildly of a car park in Onitsha. It would honestly take 2 more newsletter issues for me to explain what happened down there.
• I witnessed the transition in people’s culture and social habits as I crossed each border.
• I crossed numerous checkpoints, and I’m not kidding. It was up to a million. One must adapt to so many unspoken rules while travelling on the road. For example, I was a youth corper at some point in the trip. I had to turn off my music at some point.

I guess my takeaway from this experience is that submitting myself to certain experiences that I am not naturally used to exposes me to new lessons that help me acquire knowledge.

Case 2:

Second week of October, I hosted a live session for the first time without any knowledge from my past life on how I should go about it, but at the end of that experience,

• I moderated
• I designed
• I handled consultation.

On that same call.

Luckily, I managed to take some things out of it.

• I would stick to product design-related design content to remove any ambiguity about my professional work.
• I would adjust the reminder time and send a reminder to all intended recipients.
• and a few other things …

The point is it was imperfect but I learned and moved on. And I now have a more functional framework for running live sessions.

More to come.

I have come to an understanding that the life I envision for myself is currently out of reach because I am incapable of achieving it. Incapable, meaning I do not have the time, money, skill, or information to make those things happen.

Similarly, I can achieve whatever I want to achieve, even though I do not possess the ability to achieve them.

Case 3:

This one is not a personal experience. However, it is relevant to the message of being incapable and advancing. And this particular one inspired me because of the level of uncertainty and the willingness to commit regardless.

Fu’ad Lawal is the Project Lead for Vistanium and Archivi.ng. Both brands focus on gathering historical data and refining them to better shape how people review Nigerian history.

He travelled to 36 states in 80 days to experience Nigeria and then got the idea to create a project on gathering historical newspapers from 1994 to date. After watching his interview video, I realised that he doesn’t necessarily have a concrete plan for making the project a real business but the knowledge that “there could be something there” is what keeps him going.

If you have a slight belief or desire to pursue or achieve something. Form a pilot plan around it and take a step. It could be a one-session trial or a trip to enlighten yourself. It could also be that all you need is to open yourself to an experience that you have never submitted yourself to before and be open to your perspective being altered.

So when you get ideas like “I really do not have what it takes”, try first.

Cheers.

In summary

• You can never be sure how something will play out till you go for it.
• Take a chance on an experience that scares you today and I assure you, the return is not so bad.

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