This is life!!!

Sit replaced.. friends and colleagues are back to work.

The heart stops …6ft …and life goes on!

It reminds me of a  joke one of my ex-Boss used to crack. He would say:
“get the job done; but dont get yourself killed. Because If you died, the company will place an AD in the dailies, with a quarter page being an obituary and half page being vacancy for fill your post”.

Taking this joke to a deeper level of thought…

Why waste our life defending a brand or working our butt off on a job that isn’t fulfilling?

Why build tons enemies, if table can turn at any time T?

Why loss what we cant get back, growing grey hair at early age?

Why sell our soul in the bid of meeting up with a target that not help when we are gone?

Is this life about increasing wealth and status?

Many of us have similar questions to answer…

We hear and see people’s candle go off before they turn 70.

So whats the fuss?!

Now you are alive… dont just breathe…Live right!

(c) Ola Olabimpe

Welcome the Valentine’s day – the festival of love LUST !!

Did i just say LUST? oh yeah! that no typo- because that all it is these days.

Red hot temptation served per minutes…

Hours of pressure on lovers and couples…

A time for singles to feel doomed or lured to mingle….

A day for the broken hearts to bleed again…

Another 24hour to compete on what you get and what you give…

Time to resurrect dead old love songs and poems…

Moments of breakups, make ups and getting broke..

A season when Love is belittled to kisses, hugs, fornication and adultery…

When you show you care because everyone else is doing so…

Now officially a crime to be away from your spouse on February 14!

oh you didn’t know?! well- its a big fat crime and can cost you your year(s) long relationship!

Thank God you are ANTI-Vals?! as in you stingy, unloving, anti social or broke a55 or a player?

Valentine’s Day is a day for lovers, a day for couples, a day of industry for companies and gift stores to make huge money off overpriced candy ,cards, chocs, flowers, jewelry, erotics, wine, junk meals and all that jazz. I 100% agree sex sells…

This craze seem to be well planned; targeted at the emotions, ego and youthfulness, what better niche is there?!

Everyone has a “valentine special sales”… even on dog food?!

This commercially hyped celebration is not only targeted at lovers or lust-mongers these days … interestingly, anti-vals roses, parties and merchandise are on sale too… get the picture?

Whose lose really?!

st Valentine might have had a good intention no doubt …but is this it?

Many years ago i asked myself…

” Dear (Ola. Olabimpe),

How does a day declared to by buy gifts and flirting around translate to love?

Is love restricted to lovers or those you know? Is it timed? does it need a dedicated day to show it?

So… giving someone you truly care about a day out of 365days… is you definition of love?

Sadly decades gone and am still stunned…

We have become puns..toss around by our greed, emotions and ego…

Year in year out… it getting bigger and we stayed lock in.

Drooling from infatuation…

soon it will become a public holiday!

Love is a wonderful feeling … the excitement and its sparks cant be overrated honestly… every heart must feel it…whether as a receiver or a giver. But that’s true love am talking about… Not the charade called valentine!

You want to feel love, share love or show love.. get real!!

Show love the right way – make it sincerely, let it come from your heart, give it to the right people for the right reason…

Open your eyes!!

its valentine … so what?!

By Ola Olabimpe

[Mind Juice ...be inspired]

All right reserved

It is good to be alive! But it’s best to live life to the fullest. Or what do you think? This article could be summaried by these words of Oprah Winfrey -“The whole point of being alive is to evolve into the complete person you were intended to be.” Are you alive?

Do you know that not every living human is alive? Some people are living ghosts or on their way of becoming one. A good example is someone with a meaningless life and chasing the wrong things. It is good to aspire and very high too. But it should not be to get rich, but to enrich the world. We need to devote ourselves to creating something that gives us purpose and meaning. Are you progressing or in the process to proceed to progression? You should live your life as a revolution and not part of evolution.

Being alive is to be awake to the things and event happening around us and how they affect who we ought to be. It is easy to gets wound up in events that would seem like you are moving forward. But look at yourself and confirm that you are on the track, not on a treadmill. You need to get a grip on yourself, wake up and start working towards it. “We cannot adopt the way of living that was satisfactory a hundred years ago. The world in which we live has changed, and we must change with it.”- Felix Adler

This reminds me of a poems I wrote recently. “Looking outside of my pent house room; I see a crazy but still a beautiful world out there. I can see the ocean, the roads, the skies and the lovely gardens. I see people laugh, birds sing, and different animals having fun. But here I am still sitting by my window watching. It is true that I can not be there by staying here.” Dream and make it real. You have the potentials to attain whatever ability and gain all the required capability.

Why stick to a cage when there is a forest waiting for you. Alice Walker said; “No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.” So should you be confined to an aquarium, if you could be offered the sea? Why can’t you be there or why are you here? It might look scary to dive into the pool without to swimming skills. But trust me, if you find yourself in one you would learn and very fast too. We are usually unconscious of our own strength. “I have accepted fear as a part of life – specifically the fear of change. I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back.” -Erica Jong

Take you life into you hands and make it worth living .Do not spend your time living for others. Know that what you own is what you can call your own. Ask yourself; what if the source you depend on runs dry? What happens when the spot light is on you? Who are you when you are no longer where you are now? Where do you truly want to be? You need to see beyond today. The trader is in the market to sell profitably and so is the buyer. “You only live once – but if you work it right, once is enough” – Joe E. Lewis

I will leave you to ponder on these words. Peace and be the best you can be.

From Mind Juice team we say …be inspired

“10 kids cant play for 10 years!”- a Yoruba adage

Really? who says?! ( a normal kind of question …from my curious self).

I Love to cause disruption ‘cos it is fun.
Yea I love it, but not negative disruption like some people- stealing from the poor (votes, funds, opportunities, hope, entitlement, lives etc) just because they can.

I once looked at me and slashed my age in two halves.
Then took a trip 10 year back! Choose 10 friends to reconnect and play with them.

Thinking…would they be willing to play with me- (cook sand-made meals, play football, climb trees, ten-ten etc or at least want to play new adult games ….)?

Entered the time machine called technology…. (This would have been impossible ten years ago… technology oh technology! I love you so much!!! ) ..back to my gist.
Stopped at every necessary street per bus stop (google, facebook, hi5, myspace, YIM, Hotmail, nairaland etc). With so much excitement, I sniffed and sorted…dug deeper than 10-year backs to found my childhood friends.

Then I realise…
…some we are back and playing
…some are missing still…
…some i found but we still can’t connect…
…some we connected with but get numb after few sentences…
…some don’t even remember me….
…some i regret finding…
Was it worth it… maybe!… maybe not!

In 10years alot has changed…physically, mentally, socially and morally.
so we can be the “10 kids play together again?”
“can the 10kids of today stick together for the next 10years?”

The adage was proven to be right after all …(that’s because am convinced by my experiment )

Conclusion:
“Don’t accept it because it is old but because you were open enough to put it to test.”- Ola. Olabimpe

Wondering what craze am taking you through?

It is called- DISRUPTION!!

by my wondering mind !

DEDICATED TO ALL MY FRIENDS FROM YEARS BACK…

This article is written by Ola.Olabimpe – © Mind Juice…be inspired – to re-use this please read copyright policy our notice page

connect with the child in you!

I like to talk to the children of the world. It’s time to remember some vital tips, as we celebrate the children this week…

DREAM like a child

Do you remember what you said when you were asked what you want to be when you grow up? I want to be a pilot, doctor, teacher, engineer, artist, housewife etc? Without a single clue of how, when, why, or where… How can a child see years away and where they will be? They think big! It is about you and big picture… if you can’t see it you can’t do it!

LOVE like a child

Forgive and move on… The relationships we make can turn sour or bloom into success. Learn to view issues as it is and not a compilation from past… We all possessed these wondrous qualities like unconditional love, trust, playfulness and simplicity as a child… Just be natural, be childlike, why are you curbing your impulses?! Set yourself free, and that twinkle little star will be back…

ACT like a child

Wherever you find yourself… it is not a coincidence! It adds up to your lifetime. Whether is flying a kite, or climbing a tree, in the middle of a puddle – a child is totally involved. In any activity, do what you need to do wholeheartedly and try to have fun while you at it! “The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child”~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

ASK like a child

Asking questions, especially the right ones can clears up a lot. It’s better to ask and look like a naive, than to pretend you know and sound like a total moron. If you want to know ask! To save time ask! To win ask! “The face of a child can say it all, especially the mouth part of the face.”- Jack Handy. Basically ask, ask, ask!!

LEARN like a child

Don’t be the stuck in your believe or ways. It’s hard to leave our comfort zone… so we are quick to stamp down our feet and shout “no way!” First it was… “A, B, C” then “ A for apple”. “Sit down before fact as a little child be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and whatever abysses nature leads, or you will learn nothing.” ~ Thomas H. Huxley

BE like a child

You will do the wrong things… make mistakes, get scolded, lose, cry… Don’t dwell over your falls or don’t go from bad to worst. “The greatest truth must be recognition that in every man, in every child is the potential for greatness.”~ Robert Kennedy. Learn to get up, dust your self and run again!

THINK like a child

Need their attention? Then be practical! “For example, you do not want your children to smoke, do not preach at them, and do not talk about what you want; but show them that cigarettes may keep them from making the basketball team or winning the hundred-yard dash.” – Dale Carnegie. Think of something they can relate with easily. Walk in their shoes, look through their eyes and you will find a way to make them reason with you.

LIVE like a child

Learn to savour the golden moment. A child will look at a rainbow with excitement … Is he concerned about the heavy rain that preceded it or the scorching sunlight which might follow? No, he is just appreciating the moment while it last. Enjoy each moments like it is your last!

ABOVE ALL… Don’t forget there is child in you!

Funny children’s quotes:

• “Children are natural mimics. The act like their parents in spite of every attempt to teach them good manners.”~ Unknown

• “Always end the name of your child with a vowel, so that when you yell the name will carry.” ~ Bill Cosby

• “The trouble with children is that they are not returnable.” Quentin Crisp

This article is written by Ola.Olabimpe – © Mind Juice…be inspired – to re-use this, please click to read our copyright policy.

What Does It Mean and How Can You Be as Happy has You Should Be?

True happiness can be felt when we look inwards and and find those thinks that will continuously spark up our life!  So lets start with the wise words of Nathaniel Branden: – “Persons of high self-esteem are not driven to make themselves superior to others; they do not seek to prove their value by measuring themselves against a comparative standard. Their joy is being who they are, not in being better than someone else.” Are you happy because you can impress others or because you impress yourself?

Look at the mirror, if you do not have a reason to smile at the person staring at you. You are likely not to find happiness elsewhere! Happiness is not like existence, it won’t just happen. We have to choose it and keep choosing it, every day for it to be. It’s set off from within us and then transfer to our jobs, families, career, business or achievement and to other people. But amazingly many of us will run around looking for happiness with such breathless haste, that we breeze past it without knowing. “If the eyes is patient and focused enough it will see the nose”-Yoruba proverb

Happiness does not depend on what is expected of you, it is more of impressing and loving yourself. You will find people who spend years in medical school to prove they are not losers or get married to prove they are responsible. Can you call that doing the right thing? Why on earth, wait for someone to tell you it’s time to be happy and live for yourself? If you are doing something or seeing someone at the moment, for any reason that is sincerely not for your own true happiness. You should stop right now! Please and please again take the next turning.

You can console yourself that your fat bank account makes you happy. Yes, it will for a while before you would need to start paying doctors and comedians for occasional happiness. Am sure you can’t be fooling yourself. Resound these words of Franklin D. Roosevelt when he said: “Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.” Attaining that feeling of fulfillment should be goal. Chase the right things, at the right time and for the right reasons. Even the day knows when it’s time to hide and let the darkness of the night aid its next appearance. Remain in vogue, only when you should!

As a happy fellow you don’t need to bother much about whether life is fair or not, you need to flow with it and enjoy the scenery when on a detour. As Bill Cosby said “you can turn painful situations around through laughter. If you can find humour in anything – even poverty – you can survive it.” SO why are you lounging in a world that is not yours? Replay the good thought, the happy days, the success you have achieved! Learn to write the bad things that happen to you in sand, and good things in marble.

Being happy doesn’t mean everything is perfect. It’s simply means you have decided to look beyond the imperfections. You have shunned all reasons to be limited by any limitation or frustrated by any for form of frustration. You have surrounded yourself with pleasant thoughts, joyful goals and nice happenings. Living a life that you deserve!

So take that risk, make a change and break away. If you doubt me or think it is not possible, give it a try with an open mind . That ways would be pleased or to at least prove me wrong

You might noticed i love writing using quotation to spice up my messages. Basically “I quote others only in order the better to express myself.” Michel de Montaigne.

This article is written by Ola.Olabimpe – © Mind Juice…be inspired – to re-use this, please click to read our copyright policy.

This article is written by Ola.Olabimpe – © Mind Juice…be inspired – to re-use this please read copyright policy our notice page

Most times when we hold back, our reasons are usually based on some sort of fear. Fear such as; not wanting to get hurt (physically / emotionally/ psychologically), the unknown, poverty, criticism and loss of love. Fear clouds our mind and blurs our sight. So if we wish to grow in anyway, we need more room. Remember, the bigger the tank the bigger the fish can grow. We grow to fill our tank, then we feel stuck in no time. Things change with time and you should too. When we have made extra space for what we wish need or want. Then we can fit it in when it comes. “Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” – Henry D. Thoreau

You need more mental ,social and emotional space. You can not afford to get a cluster head at any point in time. You need to free up space to breathe in ideas and solutions. Take a break to build more thinking space for your strategic move.You need to expand you vision to think big. You need to have foresight(not prophesy because not everyone can), see beyond the project . Do not be hindered by limitations. List your SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threats). The truth is that, the light at the end of the tunnel could be the headlight of an oncoming train or the sunlight. But why stay back in the tunnel? Free your mind. Spread you harms and leg as far has they can go. “A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free.’ — Nikos Kazantzakis

More room might also mean more physical room. To give you a feeling of freedom, a feeling that you are in control and can add on new things .But please be careful not to fill the space you have created with unreasonable things. It’s often the case when you have extra room. An example is when you carry my bigger bag it will soon get filled. With most of its content being things you could do without. More room would motivate you to do more. Just like an empty stomach would ginger you to work hard towards filling it up. Basically a clear table aids a clear head. “If you do not like something, change it. If you ca not change it, change your attitude. Do not complain” -Maya Angelou

I thought i should serve you few bits from my Mind Juice- for you!

I still have more serving so, make more room!!

…be inspired

This article is written by Ola.Olabimpe – © Mind Juice…be inspired – to re-use this please read copyright policy our notice page ]]> http://mindjuiceplus.com/articles/?feed=rss2&p=168 0 http://mindjuiceplus.com/articles/?p=165 http://mindjuiceplus.com/articles/?p=165#comments Thu, 02 Apr 2009 19:54:42 +0000 Mind Juice http://mindjuiceplus.wordpress.com/?p=165 Continue reading →]]>

Every life has its dark and cheerful hours. Abraham Maslow once said, When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail. So I have chosen to remain positive and work through the wind. After all “happiness comes from what you chose to remember.”

You should take an evaluation of the past as first step towards vision for the future. If “your past has determined where you are at this moment. What you do today will determine where you are tomorrow. Are you moving forward or standing still?” — Tom Hopkins.

It makes lots of sense to look back and see what you could have done differently. Also watch how you look at you past and for how long you look back.”

Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around us in awareness.” — Leland Val Vandewall. When you know why it happened then it get easier to avoid.

Know what you want and go for it. Some people wont stop seeing you as little. My advice is cut off anyone who “always” belittles your dreams. I had to do that recently. Though it was hard, I couldn’t afford to have say thing like: “Oh! little you, what do you know about life?”. “Don’t let negative people determine your self-worth.” – Denis Waitley.

“If you are serious about your goals, drop the conditions…, why not take charge and create the experience you are looking for?” – Eric Allenbaugh. I welcome critics though but I don’t just accept what they say, I juggle it first. Any advice or comment should be an option to our opinion.

When am working on my designs or writings i noticed that feedback and side comments make me more creative.”Talent does what it can; genius does what it must.” – Edward George Bulwer-Lytton

Believe in yourself, even if you have a minor setback get up and try again. Be proud of who YOU are and what YOU do for YOU! Live to improve yourself and be good at what you do! “Anything you’re good at contributes to happiness”. -Bertrand Russell.

…be inspired

The power of determination can never be over flogged! It is not normal to say water will move a rock but the truth is that it is possible! What do you think about this: “He who determines to be determined gains the power of determination”. Another word pun, a strong wake sign or a solution? Whether things are good or bad; you will need to be determined to; make it better, hold on or let it go. True wisdom is in knowing when and how.

Look at these funny way of nature; when your body is determined to rest it forces you to rest. You can’t cheat nature right. So why do we cheat ourselves then? Is there any point you wish to attain; that seems so tough or impossible? Why you settle for less? Nothing should hold you down when you have a goal to achieve. The great Martin Luther said “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” What does that mean to you?

Vincent T. Lombardi said -“The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavour.” To further explain that I will use another example from nature which is in the growing of trees. Usually the stronger the wind the stronger they grow! They might bend or get dried but those that form a forest won’t break no matter pressure or weather. Can you apply this to you and your situations? Do you bend or break? We should always see beyond the moment. This is not to say you should ignore the reality of the moment. No! But to be determined and ensure keep my eye on the prize rather than the race.

“Where there is will there is a way” – a common and easy saying. But the application to the real issue it’s not that easy. You need more than knowing what you want; you would also need that unshakable strength to sail through to your destination. “What this power is, I cannot say. All I know is that it exists… and it becomes available only when you are in that state of mind in which you know exactly what you want… and are fully determined not to quit until you get it.” — Alexander Graham Bell

No matter how hard things may be, no matter the loss, the pain or shame you might find yourself. Remember you need to do more than exist you need to live. You need to set the pace. Be the one you love to be. So take that first step, make that move now!. Always remind yourself of the opportunities after all, burden ourselves with doubts fears and obstacles will only slow us down. “To determine upon attainment is frequently attainment itself.” -Samuel Smiles

As you determine to march on to the next level. Remember not to listen to the weak ones, ignore the dream-killers, shun the joy-wrecker and avoid the zeal-sippers. You wont get anywhere with them around. They are usually small minded or filled with negative thought. Their help will do you harm. Look around you and within you. They might not be human. I know people whose enemy are in the possession; (their phones- it just won’t stop ringing. Their TV is very addictive, the tempting soft bed.) Here is my advice from Steven Covey; “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” Stay determined! Stay Real!

…be inspired