Tag Archives: Men

Say No to Yes People

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I was rereading my last post and thinking about the kind of people I have around me.  Although I love them dearly, I noticed that there are some that will feed into my plight rather than snap me out of it and that is dangerous.

For example, you’ve had a bad day and you call your friend to moan. What then followed were exchanges of experiences and a reinforcement of how ‘right’ you are to feel crap. When you get off the call, do you feel better? Typically no and if you do, it’s likely to be temporary.

Sure, there are times that you just need to vent and get things off your chest but whoever you go to must be someone of sound reasoning and mind.

Say no to people who unfailingly reaffirm your shitty feelings, to people who are not able to gently correct you, to people who mollycoddle you into believing you’re always right, to people who agree with everything you say, to people who do not have a healthy positive outlook on life. Those people have a greater influence on your life than you know and faith comes by hearing, so the more you hear the wrong type of things, the more you believe in it, make sense?

To put it simply, in times of stress and frustration, do not go to the constantly stressed and frustrated.

Xo

P.s Have a great week ahead!

I’d Love You…If You Changed.

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I’m seeing someone. Things are going well enough but there have been some red flags.

I was thinking about all the things I didn’t like about their behaviour and how they would have to change this, that and the third for me to be with them- I stopped myself mid ramble.

If this person has to change the way they are so we can “be” together, then I have no business being with them whatsoever. He shouldn’t have to change himself for me at all. It’s rather cheeky; who do I think I am to request that someone change on my behalf?!

Could you imagine someone saying to you, “I need you to change your hairstyle, stop hanging around this person, wear this, do this job, speak proper English”, you’d soon tell him or her to piss right off! I know I would, why should it be any different the other way around?

I realised this was the mistake I made in my last relationship by saying, If they would just do this, or do that, and this too then it would be great. In all honesty he could never get the shit right because he was being measured by standards that only I knew all the parameters of.

We sometimes want people to fit a mould that we have created. That mould is defective because it is formed from our point of view and is what we consider to be the best way of being. By doing this we automatically set the people around us up to fail.

Take people as they are or leave them the hell alone. Stop trying to make them fit into YOUR box, its unfair and selfish (let’s get rid of the box altogether). If they choose and are willing to change for themselves, wonderful! You can you assist them in doing that, but not under any other circumstance unless its life or death.

Sure we can influence and encourage them but nag them to change? No.

They don’t have to be like you, they need to be like them. Let them live, be it good or bad, they will deal with the consequences.

We are only capable of changing ourselves no one else has that ability.

With all of that said, my spidey senses are telling me to quit this situation whilst I’m ahead because this won’t work. Ugh another bites the dust.

Xo

29 and Unmarried

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I can’t even begin to tell you what its like to be a woman of African descent born and raised in the United Kingdom.

Trust me when I say there are many realms to navigate through, AND to do it successfully? Its hard, hard af.

In my culture if you’re not married at 29, you’re already past your sell-by date. Yes it IS the be all and end all. It’s something almost all mothers irrespective of backgrounds are worried about.

It’s heralded as an unspoken and if you’re Nigerian very spoken of rite of passage for a lot of women. I remember shortly after graduating, the questions began to come in thick and fast about when I will get married, as if I am supposed to pluck a good suitor from a tree, wrap him up and present him to the family. As the first born in my family and one of the eldest in my extended family, in Tupac’s words “All eyes on me”. I had to ban my family at one point from asking me such questions and I won’t even begin to touch on the children, biological clock, and your eggs will be dust talk…That’s too much to discuss in one day.

If its not my family, its my friends and their families. Sometimes they say it and at other times I just feel it, the general consensus is “Irene, you are the problem, stop being so picky etc”. At some point, not sure when exactly, I started to believe them and it cost me! I mean if ‘everyone’ is thinking it and often times saying it, they must be right, right? I MUST be the problem, right? I didn’t want to be the black sheep and the one who wouldn’t get in line, so I ignored all the alarm bells and stood in the shit for a little too long. I entertained pursuits that I knew from the get-go were not right. Fortunately for me, I came out bruised and not broken.

Do not and by that I mean NEVER go against what you feel in your gut.

In addition to desperately trying to make something work, I spent a few months last year looking at every woman’s finger and then harshly judging her because the conditioning I had had since I was a child began to engulf me and swallow me whole, like Jonah. The thoughts swirling around my head were what’s wrong me? Why does she get to be married? Why wasn’t this a part of my life? Nobody wants me?! (Proceeds to cry in the corner).

The pressure to be married or find your soul mate is everywhere and unavoidable. It’s on TV, its on social media, it’s on YouTube, it’s on the tube, anywhere you can think of it, it’s there, haunting you.

There is an implicit notion that you are broken if you are not in relationship, engaged or married. Having a ring on your finger infers that you are wanted, loved and that someone saw value in you enough to make you a Mrs. This train of thought is detrimental, soul destroying and on every level, just wrong.

You are not broken, nor unloved or unwanted. The ideals established by our families, our cultures and society are often times unrealistic and can lead to an unhealthy state of being.

Anyway, I say all of that to say that I have been delivert*,I have finally made peace with all those demands and expectations that I and others had for my life. I have opted to be nobodies bitch least of all this society’s.

I have become very clear on what a good suitor looks like and my previous experiences were not it and I’ll be damned if I get to the altar and Mr Big chooses not to show up, someone will die, sorry I mean…nah, someone will die!

There is a whole lot more to life than being married or in a relationship. Life doesn’t stop there as my many married friends will tell me, it’s also not an easy feat. While it may not be in your very immediate future, do not sit there moping and become a glutton, get busy. Get busy in discovering more about yourself and living your best life yet while it is still on your own terms, because when you do eventually settle down, you can kiss goodbye to that lol.

Really spend time investing in yourself and your goals. Focus on the things that make you happy outside of anyone and do that, explore, learn a language, travel a lot, buy a home, do a placement abroad, write a book, go back to university to study (actually don’t, tbc), try new things, become a yoga instructor, take a series of cooking classes, make money, join a circus, start painting, get into photography, start a business, take a twerking class (hey, your mate will thank you later),spend time with your non annoying family members and friends, become so busy with living a wonderful life that you do not have time to feel sorry for yourself or look at other peoples lives as being seemingly better than yours. Your life can be amazing on your own, you do not need a mate to have a fulfilling life.

Now, I am not advocating that you completely shun your desire to have a mate, simply that you do not make it your everything. When people are desperate, desperate ideas and decisions become them. When people are happy, well you know how that goes.

I’m off to the gym now at 00:40, okay i’m lying, I was going to though, ha! Tomorrow, I promise.

Goodnight Xo

Ps Delivert- The act of being over delivered from something. Past past tense lol.

The Writing’s on the Wall

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The most vital lesson for me this year was to trust my intuition. Your inner voice knows best, don’t doubt it, believe in yourself! Trust. That. Voice.

PSA: A recommended good friend doesn’t necessarily make a good boyfriend or girlfriend.

I must be putting out ‘I need a man vibes’, because over the past 2 years, I have been encouraged by those close to me to consider people who they thought highly of. Two of those did not pan out well AT ALL.

But here’s the kicker, in both of those situations, I knew from the very beginning it wasn’t going to work, yet I continued on in great hope that it will just “work”, and that I would eventually be wrong.

Desperation + Desire= Disaster, sheer catastrophe, abort mission!

I always say that the worst place to operate out of is desperation. I don’t think I have ever had good results from taking action whilst in this mode.When you want something bad enough it can completely cloud your judgement and stifle your ability to make sound decisions.

I was forcing it to work with people, where my intuition and experience told me it would not work. I ignored all and every warning sign telling me to ‘abort mission!’ because I believed I deserved it and was prepared by any means necessary to get it. I had had enough of being told this or that, and being looked upon as the ‘problematic one’, so I forced it.

What did forcing it look like? Well, it looked like putting aside my standards, tolerating things that went against my better thinking, and in effect devoting time, effort, energy into the wrong places. The cost of this? My peace of mind, full functionality and temporary insanity.

I have had people all through my adult life, tell me that I am quite particular, especially when it comes to relationships and that I needed to be more malleable.You hear it long enough, you start to believe it and I did. I started to doubt myself and what I truly knew was right, in exchange for what people told me about myself.

I am not blaming these people, because at the end of the day the decision was mine to make. I placed more value on their opinions over what I knew to be true for me.  It was at this point, I knew that I had f**ked up.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to have different opinions, it’s healthy in some cases, as it establishes a dialogue that may not have been had before, however, I cannot stress how important it is for YOU to have the final say in terms of what goes on in your life, your word is the most valuable.

We all have an inner navigation system that guides us in life, make good use of it, it’s there to help you. The more you use it, the easier it becomes to detect.

How I identify that voice:

  • I know it because it disturbs me at the most random and very often, inappropriate time.
  • My heart starts to race whenever it comes to mind, letting me know that there is action I need to take.
  • There’s a tightness in my stomach
  • Unease when doing something that you have been putting off.

These are my tell-tale signs that there is something not quite right and needs addressing. Once I do it, there is a huge weight off my shoulders.

If it doesn’t look right, smell right, feel right, let it go, leave it. You cannot dress up shit and even if you manage to, it doesn’t last long, it will eventually hit the fan.

Save yourself the aggro and do what you’re supposed to while you still have control.

Trust your intuition.

XO

P.s Your intuition might be the most unpopular feeling to everyone else, still go with it, it’s for you, not everyone else.

Relationships: Family, Friends, Career, Money…?

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Relationships are hard work, irrespective of what form its in, maintaining them sometimes, will have you wanting to free fall from the highest cliff, grrrr!

I was sent a video last night that wound me up. It was a woman talking about how you should treat your man and a few seconds in, I was rolling my eyes, blah blah blah. The thing is, it wasn’t that I didn’t agree with some of what she said, it was the conviction she held that women are SUPPOSED to treat their men that way period. I thought, hold up, what about the men? what will they be doing? does one not have to take into account the calibre of the recipient of such wonderful treatment? It made me think…

People are out here in these streets having expectations of others that they themselves are not fulfilling.

Why do we always want what we have not worked for?

Why do you expect to be taken care of, when you cannot take care of yourself?

How much have you put in for you command this in return?

What do you bring to the table?

In my experience you attract what you are. Years ago I noticed that the men I was attracted to, had one thing in common, my bad traits. It was like fighting with myself on a daily basis, stress! My vibrations were operating at a much lower level and it showed. Thank goodness for growth!

Your relationship to friends, family, career, and money need effort, consistency, nurturing and patience in order for them to flourish and be fruitful. If you are not contributing in that way, the end results will certainly reflect that.

Being on the receiving end of the amazing things in life will often require you to supply something of yourself, a sacrifice of sorts. Everything has a price, whether you think it is worth or not is entirely up to you.

So lets do away with the idea that you get something for nothing, and accept that what you sow, be it good or bad, you’ll reap in due time. I have said this before and ill say it again, you cannot sow and reap at the same time, one must happen before the other.

One must happen before the other.

Getting Uncomfortable

19 Tuesday Aug 2014

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Getting Uncomfortable

I have a burning desire to live life with as much vigour as possible, in the best way conceivable. However, I realised that if I am to do this, then it is high time that I step completely out of my comfort zone, eek!

If you want to change your life, then everything needs to change. I’ll repeat that, if you want to change your life, EVERYTHING needs to change. It is impossible to change only one aspect of your life and expect that the rest will remain unaffected. Only one master can rule and take precedence.

Assuming you are trying to become a body builder, it is not enough for you to simply work out more because your fitness is also determined by what you eat. It is not enough for you to change what you eat without adjusting your eating patterns. It is not enough for you to change your eating patterns without studying your body and how it responds to different things. Along side these changes will come a different set of people that will be like-minded if not, I can assure you that your growth will be staggered-Iron sharpens iron. Hope you understand where I am going with this…

There is a cause and effect of everything and for those good things to materialise in your life, you need to reconfigure your actions from what you use to do, to what will bring about a different result or desired change.

It is principal that you comprehend that wherever you start, is only the beginning and will need to be developed further in order to experience any quality results. Some people start something and (it’s great that you’ve started) and assume that everything will fall into place automatically because of it, it is not so. These things require consistency. As mentioned in a previous post consistency is key!

With this in mind, I have a question for you…Do you stick to what you know because the fear of the unknown is greater than the desire to change? If this is the case then you have some reconfiguring to do. Imagine if everyone was to stick to the status quo? How boring would life be? Dare to be different and take chances. The people that see the most results are those that are constantly making the effort towards their desired goal and trust me it is anything but comfortable for them. There’s no magic to it aside from being consistent and having the strong will to be relentless in pursuit of your objective.

One common feeling shared by the elderly is how they wished they did more and took more chances. All those worries they had then, seem minuscule in the grand scheme of things. Don’t wait till you’re knocking on deaths door before deciding to do what you’ve always wanted to do. Let that not be your defibrillator because it may just be too late.

I know a major part of embarking on any journey is what others will think of you, my thoughts are F’ em!(as in forget them :P). Don’t consume yourself with thoughts of what if they don’t like it or me.  When you do this, you are essentially negotiating the terms and conditions of your life based on what someone else might think of you-doesn’t make sense to afford someone else such rights. Especially when these same said people neither have the balls to do it themselves nor will they consult you when conducting their business. Why therefore should your efforts be steered towards such things? As far as I am concerned it’s none of my business.

At the end of the day what’s the worst that could happen? It’s either it doesn’t work out or you don’t like it, life still goes on.

In whichever way possible, coerce yourself into doing something different and maintain that practice. With time you will become more open minded and effectively increase the willingness to explore things. It will also aid in causing you to think outside the box.

As I mentioned in the “Don’t you dare give up!” post it serves little purpose in focussing on the ‘how’ as that will become clear as you begin and continue on. The tendency is you will get stuck if you concentrate on the pragmatics of doing something, do it however you know how.

Five things to bear in mind for this week:

  1. Get clear on what you want to do this week, let’s call it your fear factor of the week. It might be something like attending an event alone or presenting a business proposal. The best way to grow is by action. You cannot grow if you remain under the same conditions you’ve always been in.
  2. Whatever you decide on, get it done asap! Don’t wait another moment to get started, otherwise you will talk yourself out of it. Even if it’s making that phone call, sending that email or filming that video,just make a start. The sooner you start the easier it is to continue and the harder it becomes to stop, make sense?
  3. Feed it. Once you’ve started don’t leave it there, push forward with it. It’s important that you water what you’ve sown, if not you’ll lose momentum and the fear you initially had may become stronger and appear less achievable.
  4. Find someone who can be accountable for you and your goals. Preferably someone who is doing what you want to do. Oh and please don’t tell everyone what you are doing when you start out as everyone has an opinion and you can easily become deterred once they begin to give their unsolicited advice -_-. (Yes, they may mean well but it is not always helpful)
  5. Have one thing to conquer every week. Proceed onto the next thing once you have achieved it. Remember the only limitations you have are the ones you have accepted. It only takes as long as you do.

Signed LBC

Ps. I’m doing two fear factors this week wish me luck!